What is the difference between ESEF and iXBRL?

Описание: iXBRL or inline XBRL is simply a common technical specification which is used by many authorities including HMRC and the Irish revenue but it is also used in Denmark, Singapore and South Africa. The difference between all these jurisdictions lies in the rules and standards they specifically mandate. ESEF also uses iXBRL, but the rules and provisions are specified by ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority .

Each regulatory authority specify their own taxonomy – a dictionary of terms which are tagged against relevant items in financial accounts. ESEF work on the IFRS accounting standard taxonomy and is filed by the client, in the UK for example, through the FCA Electronic Submission System. HMRC and the Irish Revenue have their own portals or gateways.

There is one specific area to highlight, in which the ESEF mandate has matured the tagging process and this is to do with extending the taxonomy. With normal iXBRl, if there is a line item which doesn’t have a tag associated with it, we simply skip that item and do nothing with it. With ESEF, we have to create a new tag to reflect that particular item in the accounts.