Closing document of the BCUCC project published by the IASB

On 17 April 2024, the IASB published a document (available here) summarising the Business Combinations under Common Control (‘BCUCC’) project and setting out the reasons for its discontinuation.

Document available here

Readers will recall that IFRS 3 – Business Combinations sets out the requirements for accounting for and presenting business combinations but does not specify how to deal with combinations between entities under common control (for example, between companies in the same group).  

In November 2020, the IASB published a discussion paper setting out its preliminary views on this subject, hoping to reduce the diversity of practices and improve the transparency and comparability of financial information on these transactions.  

After a number of years’ discussion and consideration, the IASB finally decided in November 2023 not to develop requirements for BCUCCs, on the grounds that

investors reported that they were not significantly affected by this diversity;  

users’ information needs vary across jurisdictions, making it difficult to develop requirements that would meet the information needs of users globally; and  

any improvement in financial reporting when presenting BCUCCs was likely to be offset by the costs of developing and implementing these changes. 

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