Annual Enterprise Survey 2019

Introduction of new accounting standard International Financial Reporting Standard 16 (IFRS 16) is a significant change to the way leases are treated in financial accounts. This standard was effective from 1 January 2019. Some businesses adopted the standard earlier and responded using this new accounting treatment for leases in this year’s annual enterprise survey. Most will begin reporting on this basis in the annual enterprise survey for the 2020 financial year. See NZ IFRS 16 for further information including exceptions from using the new standard. IFRS 16 has the potential to cause significant changes to some of the data collected by the survey. All other things being equal, this change to the accounting of leases is expected to cause: assets, equity and liabilities to increase; interest expense and depreciation expense to increase; and expenses paid to other businesses (purchases) to decrease. Analysis of the final output data has shown only minor impacts due to IFRS 16 at the industry design level and higher output levels in the 2019 financial year. en-NZ