Financial Accounting : International Financial Reporting Standards

After a thorough analysis of several U.S. accounting failures such as those at ENRON, Worldcom, and others, individuals in the European Union and around the world claim that had the U.S. followed International Financial Reporting Standards, instead of U.S. GAAP, these debacles might never had happened. For many years, the accounting profession had faced several challenges developing a set of guidelines that would be generally accepted and universally practiced around the globe. In more recent years, more than 100 countries around the world, have adopted International Financial Reporting Standards in order to settle on a common worldwide accounting language. In today’s business world, the marketplace is demanding for increasing conformity. As gradually more companies start to adopt IFRS, a need for a single set of high quality standards rises and poses pressure on the United States to converge.

it provides a better indication of ability to generate cash flows than the cash basis.

There is a clear roadmap to social globalization and convergence of US.GAAP – IFRS Standard as prescribed by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for users that set up financial statements in accordance with IFRS as issued by IASB. This followed would lead to a worldwide adoption of IFRS over the next few years. In his work, Barry (2009, p.26-27) states, “The advantage of a single set of financial reporting standards are manifest, particularly as internationalization of business activities became the norm. In particular, having uniform, high quality standards has been extolled as fostering international business relationships, with the goal being the facilitation of cross border capital flows and lowering the cost of capital _ the expected results of the anticipated reduction of perceived accounting risk”.

A final argument against countries using different accounting methods is because it only generates more costs, especially for developing or other countries that do not have a national standard-setting body for accounting (Posner 2008). The harmonisation of international accounting methods would benefit these countries because they would not have to invest scare resources to undertake the full process of creating and regulating national accounting standard-setting agencies (Posner 2008).

The IFRS are superseding GAAP as the official reporting structure of many countries and as of July 2014, 283 have adopted the IASB’s new rule book (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2014). The transition to IFRS has spawned a worldwide dialog of investors and analysts discussing the effects it will have on reporting and the implications this move carries into the future. This paper will review some financial reporting standards, the major distinctions between the U.S. GAAP and IFRS, and the competitive advantages and disadvantages of altering the U.S. reporting structure.

Over the course of the establishment of the IFRS, over 110 countries have adopted partially or fully implemented these standards. This brings the idea of a globalized standard closer to realization, when placed into the perspective that approximately 60% of the world uses one standard; while the U.S. operates on its own unique system. When all

Abercrombie & Fitch uses generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) as the basis for the production of its financial statements. In contrast, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) uses international financial report standards (IFRS). H&M also utilizes Swedish GAAP. For its annual report, there is no indication of what standard is used, and there are no official financial statements. H&M does not note what auditing standards it uses in its annual report. By contrast, the ANF Form 10-K notes that the company's auditors use the Internal Control Integrated Framework as laid out by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), as noted on page 100 of the 2011 Annual Report.

Accounting as a profession has its standards that must be followed. The standards are used across the world to enhance uniformity in the reporting framework of financial statements. This is due to the growth in the international trade and cross-boundary trade. Some of these standards include the international financial reporting standards (IFRS), the UD Generally Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAP).

Financial reporting is a branch of accounting which involves presenting the financial information of a company to the stakeholders so that they can be in a position to evaluate its financial performance and make an informed decision based on the information. There are two general sets of standards governing financial reporting in the major economies across the world. They include the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) regulated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) governed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The following academic paper seeks to analyze the debate that has been ongoing on whether the US limited companies should adopt the use of IFRS in their financial reporting as proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August 2008.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) enforced the harmonization of the accounting standards into a single set of accounting standards that is to be used globally in the preparation of financial statements and is called the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This essay will discuss the benefits of developing the IFRS, which is to enhance and increase the quality of the companies’ financial statements through transparency and comparability, value relevance, timely loss recognition by presenting evidence from Spain and Bahrain. Other benefits include facilitating cross-border investments; reducing equity cost, and decreasing earnings management. Hence, this allows companies to provide information that will be

This report will address the main features of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) Conceptual Framework (CF) by explaining the purpose and intent of these standards together with the structure of the framework. The important features of these standards will be highlighted, analysing of the significance of these and ultimately whether the CF has impacted on accounting practice.

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has been adopted by a majority of first world countries and emerging markets. However, the U.S. still uses the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP). The 2008 financial crisis and the cost of implication halted the adoption, but there are other obstacles and implications to take into consideration. One important aspect to consider is the tax implications upon adoption, and this typically translates into how the taxes paid will be affected. The implications to tax arise due to the differences in aspects such as revenue recognition, transfer pricing agreements, compensation, strategies in repatriation, debt agreements, and so on. Specifically focusing on the effective tax rate, the income tax, differences in accounting for assets and liabilities, and income and expenses. Included in this paper will be a short explanation on preparing the accounting profession and accounting systems for IFRS adoption, and other tax implications effects to the accounting world.

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) identified the five ele-ments of financial statements as the following: (1) assets, (2) liabilities, (3) capi-tal, (4) income, and (5) expenses.

After reviewing some of most notorious challenges facing the IFRS abroad, we focus our attention on presenting information about some of the IFRS successes in pursuing their goal to a single set of financial reporting standards.

The Conceptual Framework Chapter on Qualitative Characteristics does not Include Prudence. Prudence has been Omitted because it is incompatible with Neutrality