Is “Operating Profit” Set in Stone? A Commentary on the New IASB’s Exposure Draft “General Presentation and Disclosures”

Financial statements are beneficial to users when the underlying economic relationships are presented clearly and concisely, thereby improving the comparability and understandability of financial information. In order to improve these qualitative characteristics, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has published in December 2019, as part of its Primary Financial Statements project, an Exposure Draft “General Presentation and Disclosures” (ED /2019/7) to replace IAS 1 “Presentation of Financial Statements”. The aim of this paper is to analyse the main changes proposed by the IASB to the structure of the financial statements, highlight their advantages and disadvantages, and engage with the relevant literature.