IAS 12 Deferred Tax Accounting and Reporting Training Course

Course overview

Deferred tax errors often arise where accounting carrying amounts, tax bases and future tax consequences are analysed separately rather than as one reconciled process. Finance teams must determine whether temporary differences are taxable or deductible, assess whether deferred tax assets are recoverable, apply the correct enacted or substantively enacted tax rate, and explain movements clearly in financial statements. This course addresses the practical IAS 12 judgements that affect close processes, audit evidence, tax provisioning and IFRS reporting quality.

Participants work through the IAS 12 recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure requirements using transaction-level examples. They learn to build tax-base schedules; identify temporary differences arising from depreciation, provisions, leases, business combinations, share-based payments and tax losses; assess recognition exceptions; test deferred tax asset recoverability; and prepare numerical reconciliations from accounting profit to tax expense. The course also examines uncertain tax treatments under IFRIC 23 and the treatment of investments in subsidiaries, associates and joint arrangements.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical explanation with spreadsheet-based calculations, financial statement extracts and facilitated case discussions. Each day includes applied workings that mirror year-end reporting tasks, culminating in a deferred tax workbook containing tax-base analyses, movement schedules, journal entries, tax-rate reconciliation and disclosure support. Participants leave with a reusable calculation structure and a documented approach for challenging deferred tax balances with auditors, tax advisers and business stakeholders.

The programme is suited to finance professionals who prepare, review or audit IFRS financial statements and need a reliable working knowledge of IAS 12 beyond simply posting a tax provision.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Calculate tax bases and temporary differences for assets, liabilities and tax-loss positions under IAS 12
• Classify differences as taxable or deductible and determine the resulting deferred tax liability or asset
• Apply IAS 12 recognition exceptions to initial recognition, leases, decommissioning obligations and business combinations
• Assess deferred tax asset recoverability using forecast taxable-profit evidence and reversal-pattern analysis
• Measure deferred tax using enacted or substantively enacted rates and expected recovery or settlement methods
• Prepare deferred tax movement schedules, journal entries and accounting-profit-to-tax-expense reconciliations
• Evaluate deferred tax consequences of investments, intragroup transactions and uncertain tax treatments under IFRIC 23
• Produce IAS 12 disclosure support and an audit-ready deferred tax calculation workbook

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Financial Accountants — who prepare IFRS tax notes, close journals and deferred tax schedules
• Group Reporting Managers — who review consolidation adjustments and defend tax balances to auditors
• Financial Controllers — who oversee year-end reporting quality, tax provisioning and balance-sheet risk
• Tax Managers — who must translate tax positions and forecasts into IAS 12 accounting conclusions
• External Audit Seniors and Managers — who test tax bases, recognition evidence and IAS 12 disclosures
• FP&A Managers — who provide taxable-profit forecasts supporting deferred tax asset recognition

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand double-entry bookkeeping, the basic structure of IFRS financial statements, and the difference between accounting profit and taxable profit. Experience preparing reconciliations in Microsoft Excel and familiarity with common balance-sheet items such as property, provisions, receivables and leases will be useful. Prior detailed study of IAS 12 is not required; the course begins with tax bases and temporary differences before progressing to complex applications. Participants do not need tax-law specialist knowledge, tax-return preparation experience, programming skills or access to an enterprise tax-provisioning system. A complete beginner to accounting should first gain foundational financial accounting knowledge.

Training methodology

The instructor leads short technical sessions followed by worked IAS 12 calculations in Microsoft Excel. Participants analyse source facts, identify the accounting carrying amount and tax base, document temporary differences, then calculate the related deferred tax and journal entries. Cases cover a standalone entity, a lease-and-provision scenario, tax losses, an acquisition and investment balances. Small groups compare judgement calls against IAS 12 and IFRIC 23 requirements. On the final day, each participant completes an application plan and consolidates their workings into an audit-ready deferred tax workbook.

Course outline

Day 1: IAS 12 framework and tax-base method

• Purpose and scope of IAS 12 income tax accounting
• Current tax versus deferred tax in financial statements
• Carrying amount and tax base definitions
• Tax bases of assets including receivables and prepayments
• Tax bases of liabilities including accrued expenses and revenue received in advance
• Taxable and deductible temporary difference identification
• Deferred tax calculation template and sign conventions

Workshop: Participants construct a tax-base register for a trial balance and produce a temporary-difference map with initial deferred tax balances.

Day 2: Recognition and measurement decisions

• Recognition of deferred tax liabilities and deferred tax assets
• Initial recognition exception and its practical boundaries
• Equal taxable and deductible temporary differences for leases
• Decommissioning obligations and related asset differences
• Business combination deferred tax recognition
• Enacted and substantively enacted tax-rate selection
• Expected recovery and settlement method measurement

Workshop: Participants calculate deferred tax for a property, lease and restoration-obligation case and prepare the supporting recognition memorandum.

Day 3: Deferred tax assets, losses and uncertainty

• Recognition criteria for deductible temporary differences
• Unused tax losses and unused tax credits
• Probable future taxable-profit assessment
• Reversal-pattern analysis and taxable temporary differences
• Tax-planning opportunities as supporting evidence
• Reassessment and write-down of deferred tax assets
• IFRIC 23 uncertain tax treatment measurement

Workshop: Participants evaluate whether a loss-making entity can recognise deferred tax assets and produce a forecast-based recoverability assessment.

Day 4: Complex transactions and group reporting

• Deferred tax on fair value adjustments
• Tax consequences of share-based payment transactions
• Intragroup transaction temporary differences
• Outside basis differences in subsidiaries
• Investments in associates and joint arrangements
• Foreign operations and exchange-rate effects
• Offsetting deferred tax assets and liabilities

Workshop: Participants resolve a group-reporting case involving an acquisition, intragroup inventory profit and an associate investment, producing consolidation adjustments.

Day 5: Reporting, disclosures and audit-ready files

• Tax expense components and current-versus-deferred analysis
• Deferred tax journal entries and roll-forward schedules
• Accounting-profit-to-tax-expense rate reconciliation
• Deferred tax presentation in the statement of financial position
• IAS 12 disclosure requirements for losses, credits and unrecognised assets
• Significant judgements and audit evidence documentation
• Deferred tax control checks and close-process review

Workshop: Participants complete a full deferred tax workbook, including journals, rate reconciliation, disclosure note support and an action plan for their own reporting process.

Tools & standards covered

IAS 12 Income Taxes, IFRIC 23 Uncertainty over Income Tax Treatments, Microsoft Excel, SAP S/4HANA

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions