Materiality and Segment Reporting

The IASB’s Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements states “Information is material if its omission or misstatement could influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of the financial statements. Materiality depends on the size of the item or error judged in the particular circumstances of its omission or misstatement. Thus, materiality provides a threshold or cut-off point rather than being a primary qualitative characteristic which information must have if it is to be useful.”

The materiality of a misstatement may turn on where it appears in the financial statements. For example, a misstatement may involve a segment of the registrant's operations. In that instance, in assessing materiality of a misstatement to the financial statements taken as a whole, registrants and their auditors should consider not only the size of the misstatement but also the significance of the segment information to the financial statements taken as a whole.

A misstatement of the revenue and operating profit of a relatively small segment that is represented by management to be important to the future profitability of the entity is more likely to be material to investors than a misstatement in a segment that management has not identified as especially important. In assessing the materiality of misstatements in segment information - as with materiality generally - situations may arise in practice where the auditor will conclude that a matter relating to segment information is qualitatively material even though, in his or her judgment, it is quantitatively immaterial to the financial statements taken as a whole.

Thus, in addition to quantitative factors, such as the relative percentage of total revenues generated in an individual foreign country, companies should consider qualitative factors as well. Qualitative factors that might be relevant in assessing the materiality of a specific foreign country include: the growth prospects in that...