In 2009, the International Accounting Standards Board issued an Exposure Draft Income Tax. This project started in 2002 as one of the topics for short-term convergence under the Memorandum of Understanding between the Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board. In the Exposure Draft, the Board proposed to retain and strengthen the principle underlying IAS 12 Income Taxes, but remove most exceptions to that principle and simplify the accounting. The Board also proposed a changed structure, intended to make it easier to use IAS 12.
In the light of comment letters received on the Exposure Draft, the Board decided in 2010:
- not to proceed with the proposals made in the Exposure Draft;
- to amend one aspect of the requirements in IAS 12, which it did in 2010 by issuing Deferred Tax: Recovery of Underlying Assets; and
- to consider in due course whether to continue its previous work or carry out a more fundamental review of accounting for income taxes. In 2012 the Board added to its research programme a research project on Income Taxes.
