1MASTERS OF FINANCE Importance of understanding the impact of classification of classification of financial instrument as debt or equity in financial sstatements Introduction: Whenafinancialinstrumentisissuedbyanorganization,theremustbea determination of classification under either liability (debt) or equity. Such determination carriesaninstantandnoteworthyeffectonthecompany’sfinancialpositionand performance. The classification of liability creates an impact on the company’s gearing ratios and usually contributes to treatment of any payment as interest and may be charged to income (Weygandt, Kimmel and Kieso 2019). Classifying of equity helps in avoiding this effect but the investors may perceive it adversely if it is noticed as weakening their current interests in equity. Having a better understanding of classification procedure and its impact is considered as critical issue for management and may be kept in mind at the time of assessing the alternative financial options. Discussion: The process of classifying the“debt and equity”in an organization’s“statement of financial position”is not generally considered easy for the financial report preparers. Majority of the financial instruments carries both the features and brings out results that can contribute to inconsistency in reporting. The“IAS 32”helps in clarifying the description of “financial assets”,“financial liabilities”and“equity”. By doing this, it helps in eliminating the existence of uncertainty when recording these financial instrument (Schroeder, Clark and Cathey 2019). The purpose of“IAS 32, presentation”is to lay down the principles for recording the liabilities or equities in the financial instrument and also for offsetting the “financial liabilities”and“assets”.
2MASTERS OF FINANCE Arrangement of“financial instrument”by the issuer as either the“debt or equity” can result in noteworthy effect on the corporation’s gearing ratio, debt covenants and business earnings. Correctly classifying the equity can help in avoiding these impact but might be perceived in a negative manner if it is found to be diluting the current equity interest (Henderson et al. 2015). The difference between“debt and equity”is also important where a company issues monetary instrument to raise the funds to settle a business arrangement by using cash or as the“part consideration”in a business arrangement. Having a betterunderstandingof thecharacteristicsof classificationrulesand probable impacts is regarded important for administration and they must bear in mind while assessing the alternate financing possibilities. The classification of liability commonly leads to any payment being considered as interest and charged to income that may ultimately create an impact on the company’s ability to pay dividends on the equity shares (Harrison, Horngren and Thomas 2014). An important aspect of debt is that the issuer is under obligation of delivering either cash or another economic asset to holder. The contractual requirement might originate from the obligation to pay the“principal or interest or dividends”. Such type contractual responsibility might be recognised explicitly or indirectly but based on the terms of arrangement. For instance, a bond which necessitates the issuer to make payment of interest and redeem the bond in exchange of cash is categorized as debt. On the contrary to above explanation, equity is regarded as any type of agreement which indicates an outstanding interest in the company’s asset after making all the deduction of its liabilities. A“financial instrument”is regarded as“equity instrument”only when the instrument does not comprises of any contractual obligations to provide cash or alternative monetary asset to another company and if the instrument might be settled inside the own “equity instruments”of the issuers (Schaltegger and Burritt 2017). For example, ordinary shares, where all the payments are based on the decision of issuer, they are categorized as
3MASTERS OF FINANCE equity of the issuer. The arrangement cannot be considered very simple. For instance, it is necessary to convert the preference shares into certain number of ordinary shares on the static date or upon the occurrence of any event which is certain to happen, must be categorized as equity. An agreement cannot be treated as equity instrument completely since it might result in receipt or distribution of the company’s own equity instrument. The classification of such type of agreement is very much reliant on whether or not there is any kind of variance in any number of equity shares that is delivered or the variance in the sum of cash or financial assets received (Kimmel et al. 2016). An agreement which is established by an organization receiving or distributing any kind of fixed number of its own equity instrument in exchange for a fixed sum of cash or other monetary asset is regarded as an“equity instrument”. Classifying the financial instrument either as equity or debt is simply based on the “principle of substance”over form. There are two exemptions from this principle which is certain recognizable instrument only when it meets specific criteria and specific objectives originating from liquidation (Warren and Jones 2018). There are also some instrument that are structured with the objective of attaining specific tax, bookkeeping or supervisory results based on the effect that their constituent can be problematic to assess. An organization is required to take decision in order to classify the instrument while initially recognizing the instrument. The arrangement is not changed afterwards on the basis of altered situations (Levi and Segal 2015). For instance, this implies that a redeemable preference shares, where a request for redemption can be made by holder, which is then recorded as debt although lawfully it might be a share of issuer. In ascertaining whether an obligatory“redeemable preference share”amounts to a “financialliability”or an“equity instrument”it isimportantto inspect the specific
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4MASTERS OF FINANCE “contractualrights”thatisattachedwiththeinstrument’sprincipalandreturning components.Animportantfeaturewhichdifferentiatesaliabilityfromthe“equity instrument”is based on the fact the issuer do not have any unqualified right to avoid delivery of cash or other type of“financial asset”for settling the“contractual obligation”. The IAS 32 necessitates an organization to set off the“financial assets and liabilities”in the balance sheet only when the company presently has the lawfully enforceable right of off-setting and aims either to settle the“asset and liability”on“net basis”or to realise the liability and asset concurrently. Conclusion: On arriving at the conclusion it can be stated that the classification of financial instrument is clearly regarded as the challenging issue in practice. The application of IAS 32 makes the use of principle based definition to define the financial liability and equity. The study conclusively shows that irrespective of whether an instrument is classified as either financial liability or equity it creates a direct impact on the company’s reported outcome and financial position. Understanding the procedure of classification and its impact is hence regarded as a critical issue for the management and should be borne in mind when assessing the available alternative financial options.
5MASTERS OF FINANCE References: Harrison Jr, W.T., Horngren, C.T. and Thomas, C.W., 2014.Financial accounting. Pearson Education. Henderson, S., Peirson, G., Herbohn, K. and Howieson, B., 2015.Issues in financial accounting. Pearson Higher Education AU. Kimmel, P.D., Weygandt, J.J., Kieso, D.E. and Trenholm, B., 2016.Financial Accounting. Wiley Custom Learning Solutions. Levi, S. and Segal, B., 2015. The Impact of Debt-Equity Reporting Classifications on the Firm's Decision to Issue Hybrid Securities.European Accounting Review,24(4), pp.801-822. Schaltegger, S. and Burritt, R., 2017.Contemporary environmental accounting: issues, concepts and practice. Routledge. Schroeder, R.G., Clark, M.W. and Cathey, J.M., 2019.Financial accounting theory and analysis: text and cases. John Wiley & Sons. Warren, C. and Jones, J., 2018.Corporate financial accounting. Cengage Learning. Weygandt, J.J., Kimmel, P.D. and Kieso, D.E., 2019.Financial accounting. Wiley.