Recent changes may affect your company's financial reporting obligations with ASIC.

The changes, commencing on 28 June 2010, were introduced by the Federal Government with the aim of reducing financial reporting requirements for Australian companies. These reforms also change what is required in financial reports lodged with ASIC for the financial year ending 30 June 2010 and following financial years.

The key changes around financial reporting are:

• introducing a three-tiered reporting framework that will reduce the reporting requirements for certain companies limited by guarantee, which typically have a not-for-profit purpose
• improving disclosure of non-financial information in the directors' report of companies limited by guarantee
• replacing the requirement for parent entity financial statements with reduced disclosure
• introducing a new statement of compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards in the directors' declaration
• making new provisions for changing year-end dates.

Other changes to the regulatory framework include, but are not limited to:

• replacing the profits test for paying dividends with a new test based on net assets; and
• clarifying the circumstances in which a company can cancel its share capital.

For full details see the Revised Explanatory Memorandum on the Parliament of Australia's website.

In all the hubbub about the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) signing on to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s national health scheme (WA excepted) it would easily have been possible to overlook the paragraph down the end of the press release that said they’d agreed to additional reforms for the not-for-profit sector,

ASIC has released the results of its review of 30 June 2009 financial reports for 350 listed and unlisted entities.

It has used that review to identify a number of key areas for continued focus, including the appropriateness of going concern assumptions, asset impairments and fair value determinations for companies preparing their 31 December 2009.