The Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) is participating in the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) project to amend IFRS 16 Leases.
The objective of this project is to create a practical expedient to address the challenges facing lessees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed amendments to IFRS 16 would include an exemption for COVID-19-related rent concessions affecting lease payments originally due in 2020. Specifically, it permits lessees to account for a change in lease payments resulting from COVID-19-related rent concessions as if the change was not a lease modification.
The AcSB’s due process includes ensuring that Canadian entities’ financial reporting needs are considered by the IASB and issuing the AcSB’s own exposure draft on each IASB proposal. Subject to the responses to the AcSB’s exposure draft on whether the IASB’s proposals are appropriate for application in Canada, the AcSB expects that the amendments will be incorporated into Canadian GAAP in accordance with the AcSB’s strategy of adopting IFRSs for publicly accountable enterprises.