The purpose of IAS19 standard is to establish rules of accounting and disclosure of information on employee benefits.

Paragraph 4 of the Standard: Employee benefits include:

(a) short-term employee benefits, such as wages and social security contributions, paid annual leave and paid sick leave, profit-sharing and bonuses (if payable within 12 months after the end of the period) and non-monetary benefits (medical care, housing, cars, goods or services for free or at a reduced price) for current employees;

(b) post-employment benefits such as pensions, other retirement benefits, post-employment life insurance and post-employment medical care

(c) other long-term employee benefits, including long-service leave or sabbatical leave, jubilee or other long-service benefits, long-term disability benefits and, if they are not payable wholly within twelve months after the end of the period, profit-sharing, bonuses and deferred compensation;

(d) termination benefits.

Because each category identified in (a)-(d) above has different characteristics, this Standard establishes separate requirements for each category.

IAS19 recommends regular involvement of qualified actuaries to assess companies` liabilities on employee benefits.