3 Recently issued accounting standards
Accounting standards and interpretations issued by the IASB/IFRIC and approved by the European Commission, but not yet in force
During the course of the first half of 2016, no accounting standards and interpretations have been approved by the European Commission.
Accounting standards and interpretations issued by the IASB/IFRIC and not yet approved by the European Commission
Listed and described below are the amendments, principles and interpretations newly issued during the course of the first half of 2016 which, as at the preparation date of these financial statements, have not yet been approved by the European Commission but which cover subjects that are relevant to the Group’s financial statements.
On 13 January 2016, the IASB issued the document “IFRS 16 – Leases”. In considering that all leases consist of attributing to an entity the right to use an asset for a specified period of time in exchange for a consideration, and the fact that, if the payment of this consideration takes place throughout the contractual period, the entity is implicitly obtaining a loan, IFRS 16 eliminates the distinction between finance leases and operating leases, and introduces, for lessees, a single accounting model for recognising leases. When applying the model, the entity recognises: (i) assets and liabilities for all leases longer than 12 months, unless the good in question is of insignificant value, and (ii) separately in the income statement, the amortisation of the asset recognised and the interest on the payable entered. The measures contained in IFRS 16 will take effect from financial years starting on or after 1 January 2019, notwithstanding any subsequent deferrals established upon approval by the European Commission.
On 19 of January, 2016, the IASB issued the document “Recognition of Deferred Tax Assets for Unrealised Losses - Amendments to IAS 12”, which clarifies that unrealised losses on debt securities recognised at fair value, and at cost for tax purposes, give rise to deductible temporary differences, regardless of the fact that the holder of the instrument expects to recover the value of the same through holding it until maturity or alternatively through the sale of the same instrument. The amendments also clarify that the estimate of future taxable income, the valuation of which is required to enrol assets for deferred taxes: (i) includes income arising from the realisation of assets for amounts higher than the relative book value in the presence of evidence that supports this probability; (ii) excludes the reversal of deductible temporary tax differences; and (iii) must take into consideration any limitations imposed by tax legislation regarding the types of taxable income against which to apply the tax deductions. These measures will take effect from financial years starting on or after 1 January 2017, notwithstanding any subsequent deferrals established upon approval by the European Commission.
On 29 of January, 2016, the IASB issued the document “Disclosure initiative - Amendments to IAS 7”, which requires that users of financial statements be supplied with information that allows them to evaluate changes in liabilities and assets arising from financing activities (in fact, in financial liabilities and, for example on derivative assets of long-term debt coverage), whether as a consequence of monetary movements or not (for example, the effect of changes in foreign exchange rates, changes in fair values or changes arising from obtaining or losing control of subsidiaries or other businesses). These measures will take effect from financial years starting on or after 1 January 2017, notwithstanding any subsequent deferrals established upon approval by the European Commission.
On 12 of April, 2016, the IASB issued the document “Clarifications to IFRS 15 - Revenue from Contracts with Customers”. The amendments to the standard introduce clarifications and new examples in order to facilitate the application of the standard, specifically with reference to: (i) the identification of a performance obligation in a contract; (ii) the determination of whether a company is a principal or an agent; (iii) when to recognize a gain arising from the grant to a customer of the use of or access to intellectual property. The amendments also introduce additional practical expedients that can reduce the cost of transition to the new standard, and in particular with reference to: (i) contracts completed before the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented, even when applying the “full” retrospective approach; (ii) the aggregate representation of the contractual amendments that occurred previously at the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented (full retrospective approach) or of the first application period (modified retrospective approach).
These measures will take effect from financial years starting on or after 01 January 2018, notwithstanding any subsequent deferrals established upon approval by the European Commission.
On 20 of June, 2016, the IASB issued the document “Classification and Measurement of Share-based Payment Transactions - Amendments to IFRS 2”, with the aim of clarifying the classification and accounting treatment of certain types of transactions with share-based payments and in particular with reference to: (i) the accounting of vesting conditions on cash-settled transactions; (ii) the classification of transactions with a net settlement feature for withholding tax obligations; (iii) the accounting of a modification to the terms and conditions that changes the classification of the transaction from cash-settled to equity-settled. These measures will take effect from financial years starting on or after 01 January 2018, notwithstanding any subsequent deferrals established upon approval by the European Commission.
Snam is analysing the standards in question, where applicable, to assess whether their adoption will have a significant impact on the financial statements.
With reference to the accounting standards and to the interpretations issued before 1 of January, 2016 for which, at the date of the preparation of these financial statements, the approval process of the European Commission had not been finalized, please refer to the 2015 Annual Report at Note 6 “Recently issued accounting standards - Accounting standards and interpretations issued by the IASB/IFRIC and not yet approved by the European Commission”.