Reporting under Ind AS is not the same as reporting under IFRS, and the gap is where the work is
Almost no Indian company reports under IFRS Accounting Standards. Indian companies report under Ind AS, which is converged with IFRS but is not IFRS, and which India updates on its own timetable. That distinction is invisible until something forces it into the open: a foreign parent's consolidation pack, a lender's covenant certificate, an overseas listing, a buyer's due diligence, or an auditor asking whether the group can state compliance with IFRS as issued by the IASB. These pages set out where the two frameworks actually part company, what a conversion project involves, and what is arriving next.
- Written against the standards in issue at August 2026, including the amendments that took effect on 1 January 2026 and the two standards that take effect on 1 January 2027
- Every date, standard reference and figure on these pages is recorded in a claims register with its source, and anything we could not confirm is marked rather than smoothed over
- Covers the Indian side properly: what MCA has notified, what it has not notified yet, and what that means for a group that has to report both ways
What we actually do differently
We start from who is asking, not from the standard
An IFRS question almost never arrives as an IFRS question. It arrives as a group reporting pack that will not tie out, a lender who wants a covenant certificate on a basis your statutory accounts do not produce, or a diligence list with an item nobody in the finance team recognises. The first job is to work out which framework the answer actually has to be given in, and how many frameworks you are now running at once.
We treat Ind AS and IFRS as two things
A great deal of published material uses the two names interchangeably. They are not interchangeable, and a group that assumes they are will eventually put a compliance statement in a set of accounts that it cannot support. We are explicit about which framework a given answer is given under, and where India has not yet adopted an IFRS change, we say so rather than quietly applying the IFRS position.
We say when something is proposed rather than settled
The IASB has final amendments pending on provisions and on the equity method, a decision due on goodwill and impairment, and its Interpretations Committee is still working through IFRS 18 application questions ahead of that standard taking effect. In India, the equivalents of IFRS 18 and IFRS 19 are exposure drafts rather than notified standards. None of that is settled. Where something is pending we mark it as pending, because a proposal presented as the current position is worse than no answer.
Four situations that put IFRS in front of an Indian finance team
You report to a foreign parent
Your statutory accounts are Ind AS, but the monthly or quarterly pack that goes to the parent is IFRS, and somebody has to own the bridge between them. This is the most common reason an Indian entity ends up maintaining two sets of numbers, and it is the case that IFRS 19, effective from 1 January 2027, was written for.
You consolidate foreign subsidiaries
An Indian parent with operating subsidiaries in jurisdictions that use IFRS as their own local framework has the same problem running the other way: component accounts in IFRS, group accounts in Ind AS, and translation, functional currency and alignment of accounting policies sitting in between.
You are raising capital or listing outside India
An investor, an exchange or a regulator outside India is far more likely to ask for IFRS than for Ind AS, and the answer to whether Ind AS accounts satisfy that request depends on who is asking and under which rulebook. It is not a question to discover the answer to during a transaction.
You are converting, or being asked to
A first-time move to IFRS is a project, not an accounting policy note. It has a transition date that sits a full year before the reporting date, an opening statement of financial position that has to be rebuilt, and a set of one-time elections under IFRS 1 that cannot be revisited once made.
How an engagement is put together
1. Scope the actual requirement
Which framework, for whom, at what date, and signed by whom. This usually takes one conversation and it changes the size of the job more than anything else does.
2. Difference analysis
A line-by-line comparison of the accounting policies you apply today against the framework you have to report under, with each difference quantified or explicitly marked as not yet quantified.
3. Decide the elections
On a first-time adoption, the IFRS 1 exemptions are chosen once and constrain the numbers for years. They are a finance and tax decision as much as a technical one.
4. Build the bridge, then automate it
The first reconciliation is built by hand so that every difference is understood. After that the aim is a repeatable process the in-house team runs, not a recurring advisory fee.
5. Keep it current
Standards move. So does India's adoption of them. A conversion that was right in one reporting period is not automatically right in the next, which is why we review this material against primary sources on a schedule rather than at build time only.
Five guides, following a reporting problem from diagnosis to what is next
Guide 1 establishes what is actually different between the framework you use and the one you are being asked for. Guide 2 is the conversion project itself. Guides 3 and 4 are the technical areas where the differences bite hardest in practice. Guide 5 is what is coming, and it is the one to read first if your reporting is already stable and you want to know what will disturb it.
Ind AS and IFRS: Where They Differ and Why It Matters
Why converged is not the same as identical, the three distinct kinds of difference between the two frameworks, and the compliance statement question that decides whether your accounts can be described as IFRS at all.
Converting to IFRS: First-time Adoption and the Transition Project
IFRS 1 end to end: the date of transition, the opening statement of financial position, which exemptions are optional and which exceptions are mandatory, and the reconciliations a first IFRS set of accounts has to disclose.
Revenue, Leases and Financial Instruments
IFRS 15, IFRS 16 and IFRS 9, the three standards that generate most restatements, plus the amendments that took effect on 1 January 2026 and the sector positions for banking, insurance, real estate and construction.
Consolidation, Business Combinations and Foreign Currency
What has to be consolidated and on what basis, purchase price allocation and goodwill under IFRS 3, the equity method, and the functional currency and translation questions that decide what a group's numbers look like before anyone has made an accounting judgement.
What Changes Next: IFRS 18, IFRS 19 and Sustainability Reporting
The two new standards that take effect on 1 January 2027, why IFRS 18 is a bigger change than a presentation standard sounds, why IFRS 19 was written for exactly the Indian subsidiary of a foreign parent, and where the sustainability standards have got to.
Send an enquiry
Tell us roughly where you are: a group pack that will not reconcile, a conversion you have been asked to scope, a transaction that has surfaced a reporting question, or simply working out which framework you are obliged to use. A partner replies within one business day.
This page is general information, not professional advice. IFRS Accounting Standards, the Indian Accounting Standards notified under section 133 of the Companies Act 2013, and the tax law that interacts with both, all change frequently, and how any of it applies depends on your own facts. The Income-tax Act 2025 replaced the 1961 Act with effect from 1 April 2026. Take professional advice before acting on anything on this page. We are happy to be that adviser, but we do not act on a web page, ours or anyone else's, without one.