GERMANY - The German Accounting Standards Committee says it still disagrees with certain amendments to IAS19, the pensions accounting standard.

It's a disagreement that has rumbled on since the summer of last year. It has flared up again with committee president Klaus Pohle outlining his objections to Stig Enevoldsen, chairman of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group's technical expert group.

Pohle said that proposed requirements referring to actuarial gains and losses "reach beyond an IAS19 amendment at this point in time".

And the question of whether actuarial gains and losses should be recognised directly in equity as well as "recycled" into the income statement needed "to be resolved in the light of the performance reporting project".

Pohle added: "We still disagree with the recognition of actuarial gains and losses within retained earnings and would have preferred presenting actuarial gains and losses separately within equity."

But he said that the amendment to IAS19 could be seen as a "necessary interim solution until a more substantial revision " takes place.

Pohle's comments were in response to a draft letter by Enevoldsen to Alexander Schaub, head of the Internal Market directorate at the European Commission, saying EFRAG supports the amendments to IAS19.

"After considering all arguments, EFRAG supports the objective of the proposed amendments to IAS 19 to allow the immediate recognition of actuarial gains and losses in the balance sheet," Enevoldsen stated.

But he said: "We believe that the full debate of the larger issue of comprehensive income and the concept of recycling, which will require its own full due process, should not be pre-empted."

Industry body EFRAG is planning a series of meetings next month at which it plans to finalise its endorsement letters on the IAS19 amendments and other issues.

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