Accounting & Tax for Company Secretaries (M5 S5 CoSec Cert)

Registration & welcome coffee

Welcome and introductions

Ice-breaker: comparing companies through financial reporting

• Analyzing the financial position

• Analyzing performance

• Identifying financial risk factors

• Identifying performance opportunities

• Preliminary conclusion on the nature of accounting

Financial reporting & general-purpose financial statements: defining terms & concepts

• Financial reporting vs. management reporting: a focus on external users vs. internal users

• General-purpose financial statements vs. special-purpose financial statements: whom and why are we reporting?

• The stakeholders in the accounting arena: preparers, auditors and users

• Financial accounting framework: the language and accents of accounting

• Financial and non-financial reporting: the evolution of external reporting (CSR, CBCR, etc.)

• Illustrative examples

Coffee break

• Legal & regulatory aspects of accounting & financial reporting

• Accounting, tax & financial reporting as a set of legal & regulatory requirements;

• The Luxembourg accounting framework: LUX GAAP, LUX GAAP-JV, IFRS-EU;

• The categorization of entities into small, medium, large and PIE: practical implications;

• Independent audit of financial information : réviseur d’entreprises agréé vs. commissaire

• The Luxembourg tax approach: a quasi-dependent approach;

• Understanding the concept & implication of book-to-tax differences;

• Filing obligations: RCS, ACD, AED, CSSF, BCL;

• Illustrative examples

• The components of financial statements and annual report

• The primary financial statements

• The other financial statements

The reports related to financial statements

The audit function

Lunch break

The balance sheet: the statement of financial position

• A structured representation of the entity’s financial position;

• Assets, liabilities & equity: concepts, conventions & paradoxes;

• The influence of the financial framework on the balance sheet;

• The balance sheet as a representation of the past: what to expect in terms of predictive value?

• Individual balance sheet vs. consolidated balance sheet: the book value(s) of the entity;

• Accounting for value: the paradoxes & limitations of accounting;

• Illustrative examples.

The profit & loss account: the statement of performance

• A structured representation of the entity’s performance;

• Income & expenses, gains & losses, cash items & non-cash items: concepts, conventions & paradoxes;

• The influence of the financial framework on the profit & loss account;

• The profit & loss account as a representation of the past performance: predictive value?

• Profitability & cash generation: the relationship between profit & cash;

• Illustrative examples.

The cash-flow statement: generation & use of cash

• A structured representation of the entity’s cash inflows & outflows;

• The operating, financing & investing cycles;

• The value relevance of the cash flow statement;

• Does loss-making imply liquidity issues?

• Illustrative examples.

Coffee break

The other components of financial statements

• The notes to the financial statements: making sense of the primary financial statements;

• The statement of other comprehensive income (OCI);

• The statement of changes in equity;

• Illustrative examples.

The reports associated with financial statements

• The (consolidated) management report a.k.a MD&A;

• The governance declaration;

• The other statements of responsibility;

• Illustrative examples.

A new generation of external reports

• The Country-by-Country Reporting (CBCR):

1. 1. The tax transparency CBCR (multinational companies);

   2. The anti-corruption CBCR (extractive industries);  
      

• The non-financial reporting (NFR): social & environmental reporting (CSR);

• Illustrative examples.