Essay on Ifrs vs. Gaap

Pologeorgis (2012) stated that the diversity of accounting principle has an essential impact on the stock markets, corporate management, and financial reporting. He pointed that when people seeking for international capitals, varies of dissimilar accounting principles create discrepancies in their financial reporting. If people cannot understand the differences between IFRS and GAAP, they may have the chance to make the wrong decisions and loss money in the capital markets. Pologeorgis (2012) also mentioned that international investors have to relearn the new principal in order to be more familiar with the international standards. Based on above, there is a keen motivation for people to understand the differences and similarities of GAAP and IFRS. This research will show business people the main similarities and differences of GAAP and IFRS.

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

One of the major differences is that one is based on rules and the other on principles. GAAP is more of a a rule-based method. These rules are essential to provide comparison of present and past performances. Whereas IFRS is a principle based method in which you can have different interpretations of the same tax-related

Under GAAP, it is possible to use cash-basis or accrual basis accounting for revenue recognition. Under cash basis, revenue is recognized with payment is received. Under accrual basis, revenue is recognized when it becomes economically significant. GAAP has specific requirements for various industries on when an event qualifies to be recognized as revenue.

There are two sets of accounting standards that are used worldwide. One is the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). There is a huge desire for there to one set of accounting standards worldwide with the increase of companies performing business in many different countries and global expansion.

Revenue recognition is one of the major areas that a convergence of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) unleashes its fiery wrath on US domestic and global businesses. GAAP are the accounting principles that United States domestic companies currently use. GAAP was made and is regulated by the Federal Accounting Standards Board, known as FASB, established in 1973. This is a discussion of GAAP and IFRS, and how GAAP regulations for revenue recognition compare to the principals of revenue recognition established by IFRS standard IAS 18. IFRS was established by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to develop quality and transparent global accounting standards. The United States began working with the IASB and has been on course to update GAAP to recognize the same accounting principles and standards as IFRS since 2002, after signing the “Norwalk Agreement.” The merger was originally scheduled for commencement in 2009 but was postponed a couple of times, and it is now set to take effect December fifteenth of next year for US public businesses. Revenue recognition is an accounting principal that determines when income from selling goods, rendering of services, contracts resulting in interest, dividends or royalties can be measurable and will be recorded as revenue. Revenue is the amount of money a business brings in during its

There are a number of differences between GAAP and IFRS in the area of accounting for pensions and other post-retirement and postemployment benefits (Deloitte, 2004). Some differences will result in less earnings volatility, while others will result in more. Under IFRS, a company can adopt a policy that would allow recognition of gains/losses in other comprehensive income. Gains/losses treated in accordance with this election would not be subsequently recycled through the income statement. This election generally reduces the volatility of pension expense recorded within the company’s income statement because gains/losses would be recorded only within other comprehensive income. Other policy elections available under IFRS for gain/loss recognition are similar to those under GAAP. Under IFRS, companies are not required to present the full-funded status of the postemployment benefit plans on the balance sheet. However, companies are required to disclose the full-funded status within the notes to the financial statements. GAAP permits the use of a calculated asset value to spread market movements over periods up to five years in the determination of expected returns of plan assets. IFRS prohibits the use of calculated value and required that the actual fair value of plan assets at each measurement date be used. Differences between GAAP and

For years, IASB and FASB have been working diligently on convergence with IFRS. Different countries develop their own accounting standards based on their unique rules, principles, business base, and tax; however, with globalization it’s very important to reconcile between different accounting standards. Two major standards are the US GAAP and IFRS, and they share many differences and similarities. One of the main differences is the conceptual approach and framework, IFRS is principle based whilst US GAAP is rule based (Forgeas, 2008). When comparing IFRS and US GAAP, we can discover many differences in several areas. Based on note 27 of Swisscom’s consolidated financial statements, today we are going to reconcile and restate its financial statements based on capitalization of interest cost, restructuring charges, depreciation expense, capitalization of software, and restructuring charges of affiliates.

The country selected for this study is the United Kingdom (UK). UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) has been in place for a long period of time and was harmonized in 2005 so as to comply with the international accounting standards. The UK embraced the principles of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2005 after the European Union (EU) mandated that all members that were publicly listed companies be subject to reporting under the International Accounting Standards (IAS). This was to help facilitate that those listed companies could easily be compared to onr other on their performance and transparency was improved since they were now subject to the same principles of reporting. Companies in the United

GAAP is exceptionally useful because it attempts to regulate and normalize accounting definitions, assumptions, and methods. Because of generally accepted accounting principles one is able to presuppose that there is uniformity from year to year in the methods that are used to prepare a

Chris Gilmore has been given the task to convert the financial reportings of Ruckmac Inc from the generally accepted accounting principles of the United States (GAAP) into the internationally accounting standards (IFRS). They share the many similarities, including the same framework and goal, however they both require different techniques and have different regulations and allowances to attain this goal. In general, GAAP utilizes a rule based approach, its straight forward in exactly what is allowed and what is taboo. This fits mirrors a low context culture, such as the United States, where communication is concrete. On the other hand, IFRS leaves more room for interpretation and is a little more open ended. This is befitting of high context cultures such as China, where communication is more abstract, like IFRS.

The US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is a set of international accounting rules which originated from the United States. US GAAP can be defined as a set of accounting principles, standards and procedures that companies use to compile their financial statements (Elliott & Elliott, 2008). The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the other hand are accounting rules originating from the United Kingdom. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are a set of accounting rules designed with a common global language for business affairs so that financial accounts of companies are understandable and comparable across international boundaries (Devinney, Pedersen & Tihanyi, 2010).

The multiple differences between GAAP and IFRS have been the biggest struggle for the IASB, FASB, and SEC because it has elongated the completion of the Convergence Project. The first difference between the two is that GAAP permits last in first out (LIFO), while IFRS prohibits LIFO (Kemp & Waybright, p. 260). The FASB and IASB have attempted to minimize this difference by switching all programs to first in first out (FIFO). This could affect U.S. companies because they could no longer move the costs of products from inventory to the cost of goods sold. A second difference is that IFRS has different accounting policies than GAAP. IFRS does not require uniform accounting policies between parent and subsidiary, while GAAP does. In order to minimize this difference, the FASB and IASB have been working towards the IFRS approach. This could affect U.S. companies because they would have to allow certain policies that they did not have before. The third difference is that IFRS uses a single-step method for impairment write-downs rather than the two-step method used in GAAP. The FASB and IASB have been pushing towards to single step method. This would particularly affect those Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) who work for U.S.

With complete notion and awareness of how each country has their set of rules, “the goal of IFRS is to provide a global framework for how public companies prepare and disclose their financial statements” (Rouse, 2011). This view is meant to provide general guidelines, as well as international comparisons through conventional and edifying means. To bring broader and vivid objectives, IFRS replaced IAS, the older standards, in order to bring a more comprehensive and simplified accounting procedures.

GAAP and IFRS are the accounting standard unitized in over 110 countries in worldwide. Moreover, both of them offer relative information to huge amounts of users. GAAP focuses on separate the objectives for business entities and non-business entities. On the other hand, IFRS