IFRS consolidation - reporting standards in Malta

New IFRS consolidation regulations were issued in 2016 – the IFRS adopted by the EU is simpler and offers businesses various options relating to documentation.

The most important outcome is that smaller companies can comply even when producing less documentation and easing the burden on business entities.

Companies may now opt to either follow the EU-IFRS system or comply with the General Accounting Principles for SMEs known as GAPSME. Additionally, the consolidation exemption for holding parent companies is no longer valid.

In practice, this reduces the paperwork required by small and medium companies, whether they are part of a larger group or not.

The changes which came into effect in January 2016 also reflected several alterations in regulations such as changes in size threshold. This may change the categorisation and requirements of certain companies simply based on their size. Furthermore, PIEs are now required to provide the full paperwork, like large companies, no matter their size.

Companies, except for PIEs, are required to abide by GAPSME unless the entity resolves specifically to choose otherwise. Since 2016 group exemptions are no longer available.

Financial statements also need to carry some additional statements. All in all, the paperwork and complexity should be reduced across the board for all those falling within the SME categories that do not fall under any exceptions.

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