One of the early treats of the New Year will be ASB's proposals on heritage assets. Some museums and galleries report in their balance sheets values for all heritage assets. But most do not; they report values for heritage assets acquired since 2001 as costs are known, but those acquired before then remain unrecognised. The result is inconsistent accounting for similar assets and balance sheet values which whilst seemingly significant represent only a small part of the total number of heritage assets held.

The Board and its Committee on Accounting for Public-benefit Entities is finalising proposals to improve the consistency and transparency of the financial reporting of heritage assets. As well as collections of art, antiquities and books, the proposals will be relevant to heritage assets such as landscape and coastline, historic buildings and archaeological sites.

The Discussion Paper will propose that heritage assets should be reported as assets at values that provide useful and relevant information. This is to be required wherever it is practicable to obtain valuations which, when supplemented with appropriate disclosures, provide useful and relevant information sufficient to assist in an assessment of the value of heritage assets held by an entity. However, where an entity can demonstrate this is not practicable, it should instead adopt a non-capitalisation approach and disclosures should be given to provide useful and relevant information about the heritage assets held.

The Discussion Paper has been developed in collaboration with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board. It will issue in 2006 its own Consultation Paper on heritage assets based largely on the ASB's proposals.