The IPSASB held its second meeting of the year from June 10 to 13, 2025, in Toronto, ON, Canada.
At our meeting last week, we continued our analysis of responses to the Climate-related Disclosures and Tangible Natural Resources exposure drafts, and we progressed several other projects that will enhance IPSAS Standards, which provide the cornerstone for effective and efficient public financial management.
The Board approved the Final Pronouncement, Amendments to IPSAS Standards as a Result of the Application of IPSAS 46, Measurement, amending IPSAS Standards to align with the measurement principles in IPSAS 46. These amendments are effective January 1, 2028.
Where support for the proposals in the exposure draft was mixed, i.e., the introduction of current operational value in IPSAS 31, Intangible Assets, we decided to continue analysis independently so the otherwise strongly supported guidance could be delivered in a timely manner.
As part of the development of our final pronouncement, we confirmed the guidance on tangible natural resources will be located in a separate, standalone IPSAS Standard. We also discussed stakeholder feedback and agreed the only tangible natural resources in scope of the proposals were those held for conservation and decided to clarify the guidance.
We made great progress finalizing our preliminary view regarding categorization on the Statement of Financial Performance. We also deliberated presentation requirements regarding main operating activities, totals and subtotals, minimum line items, and expenses by nature or function. We will continue to refine and articulate the nuanced discussions in our forthcoming consultation paper and begin discussions on other presentation requirements.
During Q4 2025, we’ll publish a consultation on our work program to receive your valuable feedback on future priorities in the areas of financial reporting, post-implementation reviews, and sustainability reporting. During the June meeting, we reviewed the first draft of the consultation and expect to approve the document at our September 2025 meeting.
We discussed potential clarifications to enhance the consistency of IPSAS 35, Consolidated Financial Statements, and IPSAS 40, Public Sector Combinations. We decided to include the consolidation-related amendments in the next exposure draft on improvements to IPSAS Standards, which collects improvements approved throughout 2025 and is expected to be approved in March 2026. Potential amendments to public sector combinations will be analyzed further at a future IPSASB meeting as a separate narrow scope amendment.
We continued to analyze respondents’ feedback to ED 91, Limited-Scope Updates to First-Time Adoption of Accrual Basis International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). We aim to make the first time adoption standard more user-friendly by improving navigation, clarifying principles, and releasing additional implementation guidance. We intend to approve the revised Standard at the September 2025 meeting.
Save the date: September 7-9, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. Register your interest to attend by July 25.
Our first post-implementation review will be on IPSAS 20, Related Party Disclosures. To help inform our next review, we decided to conduct a survey of national standards setters on which IPSAS Standards should be a priority for us based on which pronouncements have been modified before adoption, and/or have not been adopted at the local level.
Recordings of the meetings are available on our YouTube channel.
The next IPSASB meeting will be in Lisbon, Portugal, September 9-12, 2025 and we would like to thank our hosts, the Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados (Order of Certified Accountants) for welcoming us back again.
The 2025 Edition of the Handbook of International Public Sector Accounting Pronouncements is out now. It contains the complete suite of IPSAS Standards published as of January 31, 2025,
- In collaboration with us, IFAC has published a new resource, Implementing International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS): IFAC Tools, a compilation of our resources designed to help governments and public sector entities adopt and implement IPSAS Standards and help Professional Accountancy Organizations (PAOs) advocate for their use.