IASC Foundation publishes proposed IFRS Taxonomy 2010

19 February 2010

The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation today published for public comment an exposure draft of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) Taxonomy 2010.  The proposed taxonomy is consistent with IFRSs and the IFRS for Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs).

The proposed taxonomy contains significant architectural improvements when compared with the 2009 version; in particular the proposed architecture integrates IFRSs and the IFRS for SMEs into a single taxonomy.  Other proposed improvements include an extended use of axes (dimensions) in the taxonomy, reconsideration of the IASC Foundation’s approach for concept naming and of its principle of deleting redundant (deprecated) concepts.

The IFRS Taxonomy 2010 is a translation of IFRSs as issued at 1 January 2010 into XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language).  XBRL is rapidly becoming the format of choice for the electronic filing of financial information—particularly within jurisdictions reporting under IFRSs—because it facilitates simpler and faster filing and comparison of IFRS financial data by companies, regulators, investors, analysts and other users of the IFRS Taxonomy.

Interested parties are invited to comment on the exposure draft of the IFRS Taxonomy 2010 and accompanying materials by 22 April 2010.  The proposed taxonomy and related material can be accessed here.  The final version is expected to be released at the end of April 2010.

XBRL enquiries:

IASC Foundation XBRL Team

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7246 6410, email: xbrl@iasb.org

About the IASC Foundation

The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation is the oversight body of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).  The Foundation, through the IASB, is committed to developing, in the public interest, a single set of high quality, global accounting standards that require transparent and comparable information in general purpose financial statements.  The Foundation is funded by contributions from the major accounting firms, private financial institutions and industrial companies throughout the world, central and development banks, and other international and professional organisations.