The ASB issued in June 2009 a new Financial Reporting Standard that will improve the reporting of assets held by museums and art galleries. FRS 30 ‘Heritage Assets’ introduces significant new disclosure requirements for reporting the content and value of collections.

The standard covers heritage assets that are kept principally for their contribution to knowledge and culture, regardless of whether these assets are reported in the balance sheet. New disclosures will provide information about an entity’s total holding of heritage assets and its stewardship of these assets. Illustrative examples of the disclosures are provided to help with implementation.

FRS 30 retains the recognition and measurement requirements in FRS 15 ‘Tangible fixed assets’, which require heritage assets to be reported in the balance sheet where information is available on cost or value. The ASB remains of the view that heritage assets are assets and that the best financial reporting is secured when they are reported as such in the balance sheet. To encourage a valuation approach, the FRS allows entities to use internal valuations without the need for a full valuation every five years.

The new FRS should be applied in respect of accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2010. Earlier application is encouraged.

This marks the culmination of the ASB’s project on heritage assets, which was launched in January 2006 with publication of the Discussion Paper ‘Heritage assets: Can accounting do better?’ In developing the FRS, the ASB considered comments on the DP and on the exposure drafts, FRED 40 and 42. Despite the more radical approaches proposed in these consultations, the ASB is not persuaded there is a better accounting solution for heritage assets than the current approach, which is based on FRS 15 and results in entities capitalising those heritage assets that have been acquired since 2001.

• Click here to download FRED 42
• Click here to download FRED 40
• Click here to download the Discussion Paper
   

Contact Project Director Alan O'Connor.

To find out how to obtain a hard copy of FRS 30 ‘Heritage Assets’ or any of the consultation papers, see FRC Publications.