For nearly half a century, a movement has been underway to establish a high-quality, comprehensive set of international accounting standards, with the goal of facilitating international trade and investment. In the global capital market, differences in the rules of accounting for the purposes of recognition, measurement, and reporting of financial results have impaired the smooth transfer of information across borders. Given that it accounts for nearly a third of the global market, there is considerable pressure for the United States to conform to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). While moving to a single set of accounting standards could create …show more content…
Standardized reporting across firms from different countries would facilitate cross-border investment and the integration of capital markets (Hail, Luzi, et al). According to Beke (2011), Standardization implies the “elimination of alternatives in accounting for representing economic transactions and other events” (Angeloni). In essence, similar events and transactions would be reported in a similar manner, and vice versa. Having more comparable reports allows firms to make better-informed investment choices due to a better understanding of competing firms, which can lead to cost savings. Moreover, firms that have more comparable reports can better contract with suppliers and firms in other countries, and these contracts are more likely to be fully specified and enforceable. Studies also show that the adoption of IFRS reporting should be associated with an increase in market liquidity, as well as a decline in firms’ cost of capital (Hail, Luzi, et al.).
Before delving into the arguments against IFRS adoption, it is important to note that the U.S. economy and institutional framework have many idiosyncrasies. Hence, even if switching to IFRS proved beneficial for some countries, it would not necessarily be the same for the United States. To start, the United States possesses the largest economy in the world, and its public equity market accounts for a third of global market
Access to capital markets in United Kingdom is easy after the adoption of IFRs. Public capital markets play an important role in financing the activities of non-financial companies in the United Kingdom, providing them with the main option to bank loans and private sources of finance. These set of international accounting standards helped reduce the information processing and auditing costs to the UK’s market participants. With the help of adoption of IFRS it is expected to lower information costs to capital markets, and the UK
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) was formed in an attempt to bring uniform accounting standards within international countries through its issuing of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Today, over 100 countries including Canada, India, and Japan have adopted these standards for financial reporting. The growth of multinational companies such as Coca Cola and the increasing desire of cross-border investing have made it apparent that the U.S.accounting standards known as the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) can no longer remain separate from IFRS. Under the request of the Securities and
This research project will inform the reader of the difference between the United States accounting standards and International accounting standards. The United States uses the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to issue financial reporting procedures. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). There are proposals for the United States to adopt the International standards. Financial reporting procedures are debated about the United States using the Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP) or following the global procedures. This
The issue of adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRSS) in Australia has been controversial issue since the first time Australian Financial Reporting council (FRC) announced the policy in 2002. Many believe that IFRSS adoption will lead to great advantages such as enhance financial report comparability, improve quality of financial reporting, attract more foreign investor, and other significant advantages. However, some also believe that the adoption merely result in disadvantages and cost for Australian business, accounting profession and even Australian government.
In most of the countries accepting IFRS, include Continental Europe, IFRS pledge more comprehensive, accurate and timely financial statement information. Compared to unknown financial statement information from other sources, IFRS lower risk to investors. Investment professionals can forestall financial statement information from other sources, but most small investors couldn’t anticipate these information, in this case, IFRS enhancing financial reporting quality make small investors to compete better and decreases the risk. IFRS can lower the cost that investors spend on processing financial information by standardising reporting formats and eliminating international differences in accounting standards. Investors are more likely to gain from enhanced market efficiency, which can be done by decreasing the cost of processing financial information. Barriers of cross-border divestitures and acquisitions can be removed by decreasing international differences in accounting standards, this would benefit investors with enhancive takeover
There are two distinct methods of accounting for finances in the business world. These two methods are the methods both prescribed by the U.S., which is known as the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and that which is used by the international community known as international financial reporting standards (IFRS). GAAP is regulated by the financial accounting standards board (FASB) while IFRS is regulated by the international accounting standards board (IASB). These two methods are currently under a process which is known as convergence or harmonization so that the United States will eventually become integrated into the global community (Miller, S. E. 2009). This will cause financial statements to be more usable for more people across the globe as well as enhance citizens of the U.S.’s ability to perform business more efficiently internationally.
In the major international market, there are currently only four countries do not require IFRS rules, and they are China, Japan, India, and the US. Pacter (2015) explained that presently there are one hundred and forty jurisdictions around the world need to have the completion of IFRS, and one hundred and sixteen countries require IFRS as their account rule. The IFRS can affect American business in many ways. The development of international business bring more and more non-US shareholders to American firms, and the potential stockholders may wish to have an IFRS financial statement to view the financial situation of the company. IFRS reports are moreover significant when American companies looking for buyers or capital in European countries. The understanding of the similarities and differences of GAAP and IFRS can give an assistance to these investors and investees to have a
The Final Staff Report is completed by the SEC Staff to summarize the discussions of six main concerns related to the consideration of IFRS adoption into the Accounting System in the United States. The Staff focuses on collecting opinions from public reviewers who are professional in different fields, from outreaching specific commenters for asking relative concerns, and from scheduling meetings with professionals such as investors, regulators, and issuers to communicate about opinions of incorporating IFRS in the U.S. and rising attentions.
According to current literature, the global movement to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is the paramount financial reporting issue of the 21st century. More Than 100 countries in the world use IFRS as the basis of financial reporting.
With the number of countries that have switched to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their financial reporting, as well as the continued efforts made between the IFRS and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), it is evident that international convergence is an overall appealing idea for global reporting. With that said, for decades now US GAAP has worked with IFRS to create a universal standard; and while progress has been made to diminish variances between the standards, there are still large, if not unattainable efforts ahead of us. The hype over a proposed uniform set of global accounting standards appears to be stunted by the lost efforts in the convergence project between the US GAAP and IFRS. As the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) moves forward with its standards setting, there must be a reevaluation of the goal for reporting standards and efforts with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB, 2012) believes that convergence of US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) with international financial reporting standards (IFRS) is necessary because business worldwide would benefit from having a single set of high quality international accounting standards. This would make it easier for cross-border financial reporting. The FASB makes the claim that it would help with domestic reporting but that seems counterintuitive and the FASB does not back up this claim with evidence. Ultimately the benefit is that companies only deal with one set of standards worldwide and that investors worldwide are able to make sound investment decisions about different companies as a result.
It is the greatest of times for over 100 countries worldwide, why you might ask? Well, because all of these countries have decided to implement the new standards of accounting, which is International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). However, the United States of America is one of the few large financial powers left in the world who hasn’t totally adopted IFRS. Indeed, fully adopting IFRS in America would bring countless additional benefits instead of conflicts. Also recent evidence shows that IFRS has been experiencing success worldwide in countries that have embraced it. Many say the biggest setback for the slow movement towards IFRS in America is the transition cost associated with adoption. However, I believe fully adopting IFRS including the business transition cost would be extremely beneficial for the future of America.
This paper follows the previous papers showing that there are needs for harmonization across the globe in order for accounting standards to not be affected in a negative way. The best way to make this happen is by adopting the same set of standards across the globe and stick by them. This paper will show how the adoption of these standards will benefit countries globally by using the United States alone as an example. As a matter of fact, the effects on U.S. reporting practices are likely to be limited. Nonetheless, there could be a significant impact accounting reporting processes and systems. Therefore our focus will be on the costs to implement the solution. The major out-of-pocket costs will probably occur during the transition phase,
Similar to the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) governance of U.S. GAAP in the United States, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) was formed in 2001 to be the governing body responsible for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). IFRS standards are beginning to be recognized globally as the leading accounting standards. Since 2002, the IASB and FASB have been committed to agreeing on unified international accounting standards. The ultimate goal is for IFRS to replace U.S. GAAP for the United States and be the new requirement for reporting for public companies. In the meantime, there are around 120 countries that already permit or require IFRS reporting and 90 countries that have fully adopted
Across the world, many businesses and markets have adopted the use of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). People and organizations in the business world are increasingly demanding conformity and this has necessitated the shift from the U.S Generally Accepted Accounting Standards to the IFRS. However, in the United States, there is still much reluctance to adopt this change and these has caused a lot of heated debate on whether the businesses and markets should conform to the rest of the world.