In April 2001 the International Accounting Standards Board (Board) adopted IAS 8 Net Profit or Loss for the Period, Fundamental Errors and Changes in Accounting Policies, which had originally been issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee in December 1993. IAS 8 Net Profit or Loss for the Period, Fundamental Errors and Changes in Accounting Policies replaced IAS 8 Unusual and Prior Period Items and Changes in Accounting Policies (issued in February 1978).
In December 2003 the Board issued a revised IAS 8 with a new title—Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors. This revised IAS 8 was part of the Board’s initial agenda of technical projects. The revised IAS 8 also incorporated the guidance contained in two related Interpretations (SIC‑2 Consistency—Capitalisation of Borrowing Costs and SIC‑18 Consistency—Alternative Methods).
In October 2018 the Board issued Definition of Material (Amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8). This amendment clarified the definition of material and how it should be applied by (a) including in the definition guidance that until now has featured elsewhere in IFRS Standards; (b) improving the explanations accompanying the definition; and (c) ensuring that the definition of material is consistent across all IFRS Standards.
In February 2021 the Board issued Definition of Accounting Estimates. The amendments introduced the definition of accounting estimates and included other amendments to help entities distinguish changes in accounting estimates from changes in accounting policies.
Other Standards have made minor consequential amendments to IAS 8. They include IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement (issued May 2011), IFRS 9 Financial Instruments (Hedge Accounting and amendments to IFRS 9, IFRS 7 and IAS 39) (issued November 2013), IFRS 9 Financial Instruments (issued July 2014) and Amendments to References to the Conceptual Framework in IFRS Standards (issued March 2018).