LOS E and F requires us to:
describe the financial reporting treatment and analysis of non-recurring items (including discontinued operations, unusual or infrequent items) and changes in accounting policies,
and
distinguish between the operating and non-operating components of the
income statement.
For all the extraordinary and non-recurring items, the accounting standards specify the particular treatments to be provided. These are discussed in the following section.
1. Discontinued Operations
a. Operations are considered to be discontinued when the entity decides for its disposal or establishes a plan for its disposal of some of its component operations.
b. The discontinued operations, according to both IFRS and U.S. GAAP should be reported as a separate line item in the income statement, net of taxes.
c. The financial reports should also disclose the effect of disposal and not just the cost of such discontinuation.
d. Further, any past income statements shall also be restated to reflect the effect of discontinued operations.
2. Unusual or Infrequent Items
a. Unusual or infrequent items are those items that are not usually consistently seen in each period of the financial statements. For example, sale of any major asset, impairment or revaluation of assets, etc.
b. Under IFRS, if the item is material or relevant to the understanding of the users of financial statements, it should be reported separately.
c. Under U.S. GAAP an item must be both unusual and infrequent to be reported as extraordinary. Otherwise, it would be shown as a part of the continuing operations.
3. Extraordinary Items
a. Under U.S. GAAP, the extraordinary item is a material transaction that is both unusual and infrequent in occurrence. For example, losses due to expropriation of assets, losses due to natural disasters, etc.
b. Extraordinary items are reported as a separate line of items, net of taxes in the income statement.
c. IFRS does not allow the separate presentation of extraordinary items in the income statement.
4. Changes in Accounting Policies
a. Changes in the accounting policies may include changes in accounting principles, changes in accounting estimates, and prior period adjustments. There may also be a transition from the previously applicable accounting standards to the new standards; for example, convergence to the IFRS.
b. The changes maybe with the:
i. prospective effect (where the changes are going forward in nature and applicable starting from the current accounting period only), or
ii. retrospective effect (where changes are made and all the previous financial statements are restated as if the changes always applied, in order to preserve comparability)
c. The reporting entity shall make the disclosure with respect to the changes made and the effect of the changes on the reportable profits in the affected period(s).
5. Non-Operating Items
a. There are basically two types of non-operating items:
i. Non-operating Expenses. These reflect typically the amounts expensed through financing activities and have their impact on the capital structure of the companies.
ii. Non-operating Incomes. These typically represent the amount earned through investing activities.
b. Non-operating items may be disclosed on a net basis, for example:
Net Interest Income = Interest Income – Interest Expense
c. Non-operating expenses are reduced from the operating profits to arrive at the figure of net profits.