Classification of financial instruments: substance-based tests determine liability or equity status and strict offsetting conditions.

Ind AS 32 prescribes presentation rules for financial instruments from the issuer's view, defining financial assets, liabilities and equity instruments and requiring substance-over-form classification. Instruments that create contractual obligations to deliver cash or exchange instruments unfavourably are liabilities unless narrow exceptions (including puttable instruments or instruments delivering pro rata net assets on liquidation that meet strict conditions) qualify them as equity. Compound instruments must be split into liability and equity components; offsetting is allowed only where a presently enforceable right of set-off exists and the entity intends net settlement or simultaneous realisation and settlement.

---

---

---