Question

You are the controller of PWC Ltd. PWC Ltd. is a public company with 30% of its common shares traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange; the remaining 70% of shares are owned by members of the PWC family. The CEO would like to take PWC private by re-acquiring and cancelling the 30% of common shares that are currently publicly traded. Once PWC becomes a private company, it will likely switch to ASPE.

In preparation for this potential change, you have decided to create a reference document that provides a brief overview of how financial reporting under ASPE would differ from PWC Ltd.’s current accounting approach in each of the following key areas that affect PWC’s financial statements: Investments (PWC currently holds FV-OCI bonds, FV-OCI shares, and FV-NI shares); convertible bonds; mandatorily redeemable preferred shares; defined benefit pension plan; leases (PWC is a lessor for several leases); income taxes; EPS; cash flow statement. For items where ASPE accounting would be substantially the same as IFRS, indicate that this is the case. When ASPE allows for more than one option, describe each option available, indicating which, if any, of these options is substantially the same as IFRS requirements. PWC currently follows IFRS16 and IFRS9.

Required: Prepare a draft of the reference document.

Answer 1