Discussion Paper and comment letters—Preliminary Views on an improved Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (The Reporting Entity)

On 29 May 2008 the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) published a Discussion Paper setting out the boards’ preliminary views on the reporting entity concept and related issues. Although the reporting entity concept determines some important aspects of financial reporting, the boards’ existing frameworks do not address it specifically. The boards’ preliminary views are:

• a reporting entity is a circumscribed area of business activity of interest to present and potential equity investors, lenders and other capital providers.
• control is the basis for determining the composition of a group reporting entity.
• consolidated financial statements should be prepared from the perspective of the group reporting entity.

The Discussion Paper was open for comment until 29 September 2008.