New national accounting and reporting standard
The Resolution of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus dated December 10, 2013 № 80 «On adoption of the National accounting and reporting standard «Accounting policies of an organization, changes in accounting estimates, errors» and invalidations of certain Resolutions of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus and certain structural elements of the Resolutions of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus on the questions of accounting (hereinafter - the Resolution № 80) came into force on the 21th of February 2014.
This regulatory legal act defines the accountancy requirements due to the changes in accounting policies, estimates, correction of errors. Entering into force the Resolution № 80 the Resolution of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus dated 17.04.2002 № 62 "On approval of the Instruction on accounting" “Accounting policies of an organization” and the Resolution of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus dated 29.06.2005 № 83"On approval of the Instruction on the procedure for applying the corrections for accounting in case of error detection." ceased to be effective.
Revera Consulting Group represents for your attention the information on the key changes occurred since the entry into force of the Resolution № 80. This information will be useful to all organizations keeping accounting records.
Accounting policies of an organization
In comparison with the prior regulations the period during which a newly created organization should adopt the position of the accounting policies is reduced. Before it was stipulated that the accounting policies should be registered till the first publication of the financial statements, but not later than 90 days from the date of state registration. The Resolution № 80 provides for an adoption of the position of the accounting policies the period that is no later than 30 calendar days from the date of state registration.
According to the Resolution № 80 the change in accounting policies of an organization can occur in the following cases:
• change in the method of accounting record-keeping (which is defined as the applied in accounting record-keeping and (or) preparation of the financial statements method of the primary observation, the kinds of accounting estimate, the methods of grouping and generalization of business transactions);
• taking the decision on reorganization or liquidation (hereinafter - the Decision).
The Resolution № 80 contains the regulations on the procedure of disclosure of the results of changes in accounting policies. In particular, it is determined that in the case of reorganization or liquidation the changes are made from the decision-making date. At the same time the changed methods of accounting record-keeping are applied to business transactions made after the decision-making.
Changes in accounting estimates
Until recently, the Belarusian legislation on accounting did not contain the concept of changes in accounting estimates, it was typical only for IFRS. The Resolution № 80 defines a change in accounting estimates as the correction of the accounting estimates of assets or liabilities, the amount of payment of asset value due to the appearance of the new information related to these assets or liabilities or change of circumstances on which the accounting estimates based and is not the correction of an error in the accounting record-keeping and (or) financial statements.
The Resolution № 80 determines the procedure for disclosure of amounts of change in accounting estimates consisting of income or expense of reporting or future periods - depending on the fact on the financial statement data of which period the change will influence. The disclosure order of changes influencing on the amount of internal capital directly is considered separately.
Correction of errors
The Resolution № 80 defines an error as an incorrect disclosure (nondisclosure) of a business transaction in accounting and (or) financial statements. There will be a list of possible causes of errors, which differs from the prior legislation. Thus, an error may be caused by:
• incorrect application of legislation of the Republic of Belarus;
• incorrect application of accounting policies of an organization;
• calculation inaccuracies when accounting record-keeping and (or) preparing financial statements;
• improper accounting estimate of assets, liabilities, internal capital, income, expenses of the organization;
• disuse or misuse, when accounting record-keeping and (or) preparing financial statements, of available information on a business transaction made;
• disuse, when accounting record-keeping and (or) preparing financial statements, of information on a business transaction made due to the absence up to the approval date of the financial statements of primary accounting records confirming its fulfillment.
Compared to the prior regulatory legal acts the Resolution № 80 contains no examples of accounting records for all kinds of errors.
With regard to the general rules of correction of errors, as before, it is registered by an accounting statement-estimate. The list of its obligatory details is reduced and consists of only those details that are obligatory for all the primary accounting documents.
How we can assist
Revera Consulting Group experts are prepared to render for you an advisory opinion on the matters related to application of regulatory legal acts in the sphere of accountancy.
