IAS 24 – RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this Standard is to ensure that an entity‘s financial statements contain the disclosures necessary to draw attention to the possibility that its financial position and profit or loss may have been affected by the existence of related parties and by transactions and outstanding balances, including commitments, with such parties.
SCOPE
This Standard shall be applied in:
- Identifying related party relationships and transactions;
- Identifying outstanding balances, including commitments, between an entity and its related parties; (c) Identifying the circumstances in which disclosure of the items in (a) and (b) is required; and (d) Determining the disclosures to be made about those items.
DEFINITIONS
The following terms are used in this Standard with the meanings specified:
A related party is a person or entity that is related to the entity that is preparing its financial statements (in this Standard referred to as the ‗reporting entity‘).
- A person or a close member of that person‘s family is related to a reporting entity if that person:
- has control or joint control over the reporting entity;
- has significant influence over the reporting entity; or
- is a member of the key management personnel of the reporting entity or of a parent of the reporting entity.
- An entity is related to a reporting entity if any of the following conditions applies:
- The entity and the reporting entity are members of the same group (which means that each parent, subsidiary and fellow subsidiary is related to the others).
- One entity is an associate or joint venture of the other entity (or an associate or joint venture of a member of a group of which the other entity is a member).
- Both entities are joint ventures of the same third party.
- One entity is a joint venture of a third entity and the other entity is an associate of the third entity.
- The entity is a post-employment benefit plan for the benefit of employees of either the reporting entity or an entity related to the reporting entity. If the reporting entity is itself such a plan, the sponsoring employers are also related to the reporting entity.
- The entity is controlled or jointly controlled by a person identified in (a).
- A person identified in (a)(i) has significant influence over the entity or is a member of the key management personnel of the entity (or of a parent of the entity).
A related party transaction is a transfer of resources, services or obligations between a reporting entity and a related party, regardless of whether a price is charged.
Close members of the family of a person are those family members who may be expected to influence, or be influenced by, that person in their dealings with the entity and include:
- That person‘s children and spouse or domestic partner;
- Children of that person‘s spouse or domestic partner; and
- Dependants of that person or that person‘s spouse or domestic partner.
Compensation includes all employee benefits (as defined in IAS 19 Employee Benefits) including employee benefits to which IFRS 2 Share-based Payment applies.
Employee benefits are all forms of consideration paid, payable or provided by the entity, or on behalf of the entity, in exchange for services rendered to the entity.
It also includes such consideration paid on behalf of a parent of the entity in respect of the entity.
Compensation includes:
- Short-term employee benefits, such as wages, salaries and social security contributions, paid annual leave and paid sick leave, profit-sharing and bonuses (if payable within twelve months of the end of the period) and non-monetary benefits (such as medical care, housing, cars and free or subsidised goods or services) for current employees;
- Post-employment benefits such as pensions, other retirement benefits, post-employment life insurance and post-employment medical care;
- Other long-term employee benefits, including long-service leave or sabbatical leave, jubilee or other long-service benefits, long-term disability benefits and, if they are not payable wholly within twelve months after the end of the period, profit-sharing, bonuses and deferred compensation; (d) Termination benefits; and (e) Share-based payment.
Control is the power to govern the financial and operating policies of an entity so as to obtain benefits from its activities.
Joint control is the contractually agreed sharing of control over an economic activity.
Key management personnel are those persons having authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the entity, directly or indirectly, including any director (whether executive or otherwise) of that entity.
Significant influence is the power to participate in the financial and operating policy decisions of an entity, but is not control over those policies. Significant influence may be gained by share ownership, statute or agreement.
Government refers to government, government agencies and similar bodies whether local, national or international.
A government-related entity is an entity that is controlled, jointly controlled or significantly influenced by a government.
DISCLOSURE
Relationships between parents and subsidiaries. Regardless of whether there have been transactions between a parent and a subsidiary, an entity must disclose the name of its parent and, if different, the ultimate controlling party.
Management compensation. Disclose key management personnel compensation in total and for each of the following categories:
- Short-term employee benefits
- Post-employment benefits
- Other long-term benefits
- Termination benefits
- Share-based payment benefits
Key management personnel are those persons having authority and responsibility for planning, directing, and controlling the activities of the entity, directly or indirectly, including any directors (whether executive or otherwise) of the entity.
Related party transactions. If there have been transactions between related parties, disclose the nature of the related party relationship as well as information about the transactions and outstanding balances necessary for an understanding of the potential effect of the relationship on the financial statements. These disclosures would be made separately for each category of related parties and would include:
- The amount of the transactions
- The amount of outstanding balances, including terms and conditions and guarantees
- Provisions for doubtful debts related to the amount of outstanding balances
- Expense recognised during the period in respect of bad or doubtful debts due from related parties
The disclosures shall be made separately for each of the following categories:
- The parent;
- Entities with joint control or significant influence over the entity;
- Subsidiaries;
- Associates;
- Joint ventures in which the entity is a venturer;
- Key management personnel of the entity or its parent; and (g) Other related parties.
Items of a similar nature may be disclosed in aggregate except when separate disclosure is necessary for an understanding of the effects of related party transactions on the financial statements of the entity
A reporting entity is exempt from the disclosure requirements in relation to related party transactions and outstanding balances, including commitments, with:
- a government that has control, joint control or significant influence over the reporting entity; and
- Another entity that is a related party because the same government has control, joint control or significant influence over both the reporting entity and the other entity.
If a reporting entity applies the exemption, it shall disclose the following about the transactions and related outstanding balances:
- the name of the government and the nature of its relationship with the reporting entity (i.e. control, joint control or significant influence);
- the following information in sufficient detail to enable users of the entity‘s financial statements to understand the effect of related party transactions on its financial statements: (i) The nature and amount of each individually significant transaction; and
(ii) For other transactions that are collectively, but not individually, significant, a qualitative or quantitative indication of their extent.
NOTE: This topic is very important for Ethics based questions.