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Essay on Gaap vs Ifrs

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Comparison of reporting discrepancies between IFRS and GAAP

Kaci Amon, Poonam Aujla, Daniel Aurora, Yuanyan Fang, Mark Gonzalez

Accounting 306 C1
Professor Xuhong Luo
August 12, 2012

Executive Summary
The generally accepted accounting principal (GAAP) and international financial reporting standard (IFRS) are standards governing how economic events are reported. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relies on the FASB, the accounting standard-setting body of the US, to develop accounting standards that public companies must follow when publishing financial statements. On the other hand, many countries outside of the Unite States have adopted the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) which …show more content…

In 2002 the International Accounting Oversight Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) began working to set a global standards for accounting. In order to accomplish this they would need to remove differences between the two sets of standards. According to IFRS, IASB and FASB signed the Norwalk Agreement which included a Memorandum of Understanding. In 2006 they drafted a roadmap for convergence with specific goals to be reached by 2008, which was updated in 2008 to reflect other priorities and milestones. According to IFRS, the “US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) removed in 2007 the requirement for non-US companies registered in the United States to reconcile their financial reports with US GAAP if their accounts complied with IFRS as issued by the IASB. The most recent update was published in April 2012, which was a joint progress reports.
According to PWC the top three priorities for convergence are financial instruments, revenue recognition, and leases. These have been prioritized as the current standards in both IFRS and US GAAP require revision. Secondary priorities are consolidation and financial statement presentation. As indicated in Appendix A, there are several joint projects with an estimated draft completion date falling within the current calendar year. There is only one project Consolidation, where a final standard issue is expected by year end. The chart

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