In December 2007, the IASB decided not to add the project to its agenda.
The IASB was contemplating undertaking a project on the accounting for identifiable intangible assets (ie excluding goodwill) jointly with the FASB. Such a project would address concerns that the current accounting requirements lead to inconsistent treatments for some types of intangible assets depending on how they arise.
The IASB discussed a proposal to add a project on the accounting for identifiable intangible assets to its active agenda in December 2007. At that time, the Board decided not to add such a project to its active agenda. However, the Board would like the research work that began with the development of the agenda proposal to continue until it can consider the project again for addition to the active agenda.
The December 2007 agenda proposal incorporated an analysis of the views of a range of users of financial statements, insights from academic studies and implementation experience with IFRS 3 Business Combinations. To provide a pragmatic perspective, the proposal suggested that the project team continue consulting with users and preparers of financial statements as part of the project.
The December 2007 agenda proposal considered different scopes and objectives that could be adopted for a project on the accounting for identifiable intangible assets. The scope could cover only one type of intangible asset, or more that one type, or all types. The objective could be recognition, measurement and disclosure or disclosure-only.
The IASB and FASB decided that the December 2007 proposal should consider the merits of a project that addresses:
- the initial accounting for identifiable intangible assets other than those acquired in a business combination (with a particular focus on, but not limited to, internally-generated identifiable intangible assets); and
- the subsequent accounting for all identifiable intangible assets.
Accordingly, the proposal included consideration of a project scope that would incorporate initial accounting for intangible assets acquired:
- separately, including those acquired in exchange for a non-monetary asset or assets;
- by way of a government grant; and
- in a group of assets or net assets that is not a business.
The initial accounting for intangible assets acquired in a business combination, and the initial and subsequent accounting for goodwill, were outside the scope of the proposal.