The Red Book is currently purchasable at the IASB’s web shop, and is priced at £65 per copy; with discounted prices to those ordering multiple copies, academics/students and residents of middle and low-income countries.

Containing details of all the official pronouncements issued as of January 1, the Red Book offers a comprehensive guide to the updated policies of the IASB and its related practices through 2013. This year’s edition includes those pronouncements made as a result of recent amendments to ‘Government Loans’; ‘Consolidated Financial Statements’; ‘Joint Arrangements and Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities: Transition Guidance’; ‘Investment Entities’; as well as ‘Annual Improvements to IFRS 2009-2011 Cycle’.

Amendments to ‘Government Loans’ address the means by which a first-time adopter accounts for a loan with a below-market rate of interest when transitioning to IFRS. “It also adds an exception to the retrospective application of IFRS, which provides the same relief to first-time adopters granted to existing preparers of IFRS financial statements when the requirement was incorporated into IAS 20 in 2008.”

Amendments made as of June 2012 to ‘Consolidated Financial Statements, Joint Arrangements and Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities: Transition Guidance’ are furthermore included in the Red Book. The aforementioned changes were implemented in an effort to better reduce concerns of the transitional requirements of IFRS 10 ‘Consolidated Financial Statements’ being cause for concern to companies. The resulting changes were intended to further ease the transition relief for companies by “limiting the requirement to provide adjusted comparative information to only the preceding comparative period.”

The definition of ‘Investment Entities’ has altered from that of the previous edition. Amendments made in October of last year redefined an ‘investment entity’ as one that “obtains funds from one or more investor for the purpose of providing those investor(s) with investment management services”; “commits to its investor(s) that its business purpose is to invest funds solely for returns from capital appreciation, investment income, or both”; and “measures and evaluates the performance of substantially all of its investments on a fair value basis.”

The last of the amendments to the 2013 edition of the Red Book pertain to annual improvements. The amendments centre around five standards being: “First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards”; “Presentation of Financial Statements”; “Property, Plant and Equipment”; “Financial Instruments: Presentation”; and “Interim Financial Reporting”, and are meant primarily for purposes in the improved clarification and classification of IFRS.