IFRS 18: Effekten på regnskabsbrugeres informationsværdi og regnskabsaflæggerens regnskab efter IFRS 18

Abstract

The IASB has during 2024 presented a new IFRS-Standard, IFRS 18, which replaces IAS 1 ”Presentation and of Financial Statements”, which is the overall requirements for the presentation of financial statements. The new standard will seek to aid investor analysis of companies’ financial performances. To assess whether the new standard does in fact aid the investors’ analysis, this paper has been created with the purpose of clarifying which changes IFRS 18 brings to the annual report as we know it from IAS 1, which effect these changes have on the general purpose of financial reporting and how it might affect the Danish Financial Statements Act. First, the paper states the general purpose, general regulations to the financial statements, regulations to the income statements and regulation for grouping of costs in the income statements, as describe by both IAS 1 and IFRS 18. Specifically, for IFRS 18 this paper also states the regulations for the management defined performance measures. Secondly, the paper states a practically example of IFRS 18 for the income statement from Valneva’s annual report 2023, which is being used in the analysis of the company’s key figures and an analysis of the company’s multiple. Third, the paper analyses the impact of the management defined performance measures, and afterwards professionals are included in the general analysis of IFRS 18’s effect on the annual report. Finally, the paper concludes that IFRS 18 has had an impact on how the annual report will be presented from 2027, a positive impact on the general purpose of financial reporting and that the effect on the Danish Financial Statements Act might still be unknown, however looking at previous IFRS-Standards, it could have a big impact after some time.