The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board has deferred the effective dates of several of its upcoming standards and amendments to give government accountants around the world an extra year to implement them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, the IPSASB released a final pronouncement, COVID-19: Deferral of Effective Dates, postponing the effective dates of recently published Standards and Amendments to IPSAS by one year to Jan. 1, 2023.

The IPSASB, like other accounting standard-setters such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board in the U.S. and the International Accounting Standards Board, is delaying the dates in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it has created. The pronouncement aims to give stakeholders more time to implement the following standards and amendments:

• IPSAS 41, Financial Instruments;
• IPSAS 42, Social Benefits;
• Long-term Interests in Associates and Joint Ventures (Amendments to IPSAS 36) and Prepayment Features with Negative Compensation (Amendments to IPSAS 41);
• Collective and Individual Services (Amendments to IPSAS 19); and
• Improvements to IPSAS, 2019.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant pressures on the staff and other resources that public sector entities might otherwise devote to the implementation of upcoming IPSAS standards and amendments,” said IPSASB chair Ian Carruthers in a statement Friday. “A one-year deferral of the effective dates of these upcoming standards and amendments will provide much-needed operational relief to public sector entities.”