China: Opened consultation on Interim Provisions on Accounting Treatment of Enterprise Data Resources

On 1 December 2022, the Chinese Ministry of Finance published its draft Interim Provisions on Accounting Treatment of Enterprise Data Resources and opened a public consultation until 6 January 2023. The Interim Provisions concern the accounting of data controlled by companies, not only when it qualifies as an "intangible asset" or an "inventory asset" under already established criteria, but also outside of these cases whenever it is expected to generate economic benefits to the company. The Interim Provisions apply to internally generated and used data as well as to data involved in external transactions. The Interim Provisions include precise provisions on the accounting of data, requiring extensive disclosures including the data's nature, scale, source, ownership, acquisition method, and book value. Firms are also required to explain the basis for the value attributed to each parameter in the disclosures, including application scenarios, risk assessments, and geographical restrictions.