Moore Australia welcomes the changes implemented by ASIC on 30 April, to counter the confusion caused by AASB 16. The introduction of AASB 16 resulted in the recognition of right-of-use assets (ROU) and lease liabilities. The issue, which arose for Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensees, was whether ROU assets would be included in the calculation of their net tangible assets (NTA).
ASIC has now made changes to the regulatory requirements to allow the inclusion of ROU assets in the calculation of their NTA for AFS licensees.
The change also removes the need for the no-action position, which had been issued earlier, after the accounting industry raised concerns about ASIC’s position that ROU assets were intangible assets and should be excluded from the calculation.
David Holland, National Head of Technical Accounting at Moore Australia commented: “Leases are a highly technical area and often cause confusion for businesses. Whether or not to include ROU assets in the calculation of NTA for AFS licensees created a unique problem for the industry. It is great to see ASIC working with the industry to support transparency.”
For more information see refer to the ASIC release:
‘21-088MR ASIC allows certain AFS licensees to use lease assets t satisfy their licence financial requirements’