Accounting Treatment of Intangible Assets

In intellectual property assets and software showed its opening balance, closing balance, additions, disposals, accumulated amortization and impairment currency translation differences and net amount. Goodwill just showed the opening and closing balance and currency translation difference not any impairment loss. However, in intangible capital work in progress, it also showed other more informationabout amount transferred to software intangibles and transferred from PPE. At the end of the notes 12 of intangible assets, it provided additional information about the amortization charge that was recognized in general and administration expenses in the statement of comprehensive income （CSL annual report 2011）and impairment tests for cash generating units containing goodwill. CSL Behring and CSL Blotheraples all were CSL’s goodwill. The total intangible assets in 2011 were lower than before because of amortization in every year.

Goodwill is an intangible asset for which the accounting methods are pronounced by FASB issued _SFAS No. 142_, "Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets." Goodwill is an earning power concept in which its value is an approximation equal to the discounted present value of future earnings that would exceed normal industry earnings. Goodwill is recognized as an intangible asset when it is acquired through a purchase of an existing company. Its value is determined by the excess of the total fair value above the fair value of distinguishable net assets. Amortization of goodwill is

Intangible assets are one of the most significant items in Myers financial statement. It consists of goodwill, brand names and trademarks, software and leases. AASB 136 Impairment of Assets requires Goodwill and some of the brand names that are indefinite useful life to test for the impairment. In Myer, there is no impairment loss. Furthermore, the accumulated amortisations of the other intangible assets are shown in the table X have a total value of $73585 thousand. According to AASB 117 Leases, the total rentals leases over the leases term are being expensed on a straight-line basis. In contrast, Myer’s competitor David Jones has only two intangible assets goodwill and software. The accumulated amortisation for software is $28808 thousand which is shown in the table X and it is the total value of accumulated amortisation.

States. Companies should report income, liability, equity, and assets. Many people (stockholders, investors, etc.) who have a stake in the company want to know this information before providing a service. In this paper, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) will be compared for

Furthermore, the Key Audit Matter (KAM) of goodwill and intangible assets disclosed in Telstra Corporation Ltd annual report are recognised as core assets. In note 2.4.2, it can be seen that intangible assets has the highest deferred tax liabilities after non-current assets. This is to be expected since it is a telecommunication and technology company so the cost incurred is significant for intangible assets such as research and development, capital costs and obtained intangible assets. Therefore, this is considered highly material as the events or transactions would impact Telstra as a whole such as the industry competitiveness and not just the financial statement alone. Moreover, it is complex to evaluate the impairment of the goodwill and

Intangible Assets were part of the 2006 “memorandum of understanding” between FASB and IASB. Eventually, intangibles assets were cut from the list of changes to be made. In future years the problems will have to be addressed. As far as research and development costs, IAS 38 will likely be fully adopted. One major problem still being faced is the revaluation of intangible assets. Under GAAP, revaluation is strictly prohibited. Under IFRs, revaluation

Net income is not a sufficient indicator of the financial health of an entity. It only serves as a basis of allocation of expenses from the revenues that are generated for a certain financial period. It involves “noncash expenses,” specifically “depreciation and amortization of intangible assets” that reduces its value, but have no effect on the net cash flows of the business. It also differs with cash flow under the context of timing of revenue and expense versus the actual “occurrence” of cash flows (Williams, et al.). There are other considerations that must be probed at, such as the procurement of funds from credit facilities, the ability to pay short-term and long-term financial obligations, distribution of annual dividends, cash inflow and outflow from operating, financing and investing activities. Along with the income statement, balance sheet and critical analysis of several factors, the use of cash flow statement of the company serves an important indicator of the financial health and continuous operations of the business.

In 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a road map for the United States (US) to implement International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) that would eventually lead to the dissolution of US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) (Cox 2008). US GAAP is rules based system of accounting that contains over 25,000 detailed pages of guidance, whereas IFRS is a principles based system of accounting that contains 2,500 pages of guidance. IFRS allows accountants to exercise professional judgment when making many decisions. This paper will compare and contrast US GAAP with IFRS on Intermediate Accounting Topics.

Over the past several years, there has been a growing controversy over the accounting issues of fair values and historical cost. The basis of this controversy revolves around which one of these principles is the most accurate. There are many different viewpoints on this issue. Many accounting professionals believe that fair value is just as accurate as the historical cost principle, while others believe that the historical cost is more reliable. The facts about each of these valuation methods will be researched and explained throughout this research document, as well as the different viewpoint about which method is the most accurate and reliable.

Some of the key concerns surrounding the concept of “goodwill” and its classification as an asset create challenging problems for accounting professionals throughout the industry. SEC Chief Accountant, Walter Schuetze expressed his dissatisfaction with FASB’s definition of assets. He was quoted saying “The FASB’s definition is so complex, so abstract, so open-ended, so all-inclusive and so vague; we cannot use it to solve problems.”

Financial world is at the pace when the accountants are moving their steps towards fair value accounting, moreover FASB and IASB is motivating accountants to increase the use of fair value accounting by establishing new rules. Most of the people concur that fair values are the most reliable measure for financial assets and liabilities that an entity strongly trades, on the other hand some believes if management wants to hold an asset or liability till their maturity then historical method is best for measuring financial assets.

Main focus of IASB for introducing new standard for business combinations was that financial statements of companies became more realistic and to represent real economic position and value of a company. Therefore restriction to acquisition method as the only option for business combination is the advantage of new standard since using this method, companies do not have a choice whether to recognize goodwill arising from business combinations. Amortization was changed with impairment because amortization of goodwill can lead to arbitrary accounting according to IASB (Shinhan Financial Group n.d., p. 4). Problem arising is that impairment test and determination of recoverable amount require an active market with homogenies assets and available prices which is hard to determine as far as intangibles are concerned. Consequently, this leads to more subjective decisions regarding measurement and leaves a lot of space for management impact on goodwill. Therefore aim of IASB for transparency and full fair value model is not realized.

AASB 138 defines intangible assets as “identifiable non-monetary assets without physical substance”. Such assets include but are not limited to goodwill, trademarks, patents and research and development. AASB 138 Intangible Assets has been implemented to prescribe the accounting treatment for intangible assets that have not been specifically dealt with in any other standard. Therefore, this standard only applies to intangible assets that have not been previously dealt with. Furthermore, it can be established that this standard is an example of normative accounting theories because the standard prescribes what should be done, rather than predicts what people may do. According to AASB 138 Intangible Assets, in order for an asset to be recognised in the financial statements it must meet specific criteria. The required criterion states that the asset must be identifiable, the entity has control of the asset, future economic benefits are probable and the cost of the asset can be measured reliably.

One of these is with regards to goodwill and intangible assets with identifiable useful lives.

It has been become an issue of great concern that the accounting profession must find a common theory in order to address and put the issue at rest. This therefore, has called for the study of this topic under review “the demand for and supply of accounting theories: the market for excuses. As a result of this several questions have been raised. For instance, the question of why accounting theories are predominantly normative has been put forward by this article? Secondly, why no single theory in accounting profession that is generally or widely accepted? It has been argued that the financial accounting theories have been found to be ineffective most especially in the area of impacting accounting practice and policy, though, this has been