Measurement options for non-controlling interests and their effects on consolidated financial statements consistency. Which should the disclosure be?

Abstract

This paper aims at emphasizing some drawbacks arising from the alternatives consolidation approaches allowed by the IFRS 3 revised 2008. We develop our analysis working on simulated figures to demonstrate that subsidiaries with similar underlying economics might have a different impact on the calculation of the group equity and income. That is merely due to the accounting treatment chosen by the parent company. This fact does not respect the consistency among values within consolidated financial statements and causes lack of comparability among consolidated financial statements prepared by different reporting entities. Since nowadays there is not any Standard requiring disclosure suitable for the comprehension of this matter, we suggest which relevant disclosure should be provided to better understand the composition of the group results.