An Executive's Guide for Moving from US GAAP to IFRS - Paperback

by Peter Walton (Author)

An Executive's Guide for Moving from US GAAP to IFRS reviews different issues relating to the possibility that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may eventually mandate the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for use by listed companies and delegate to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) the task of providing accounting standards for the United States.

The first chapter reviews the international movement to converge on a single global basis of accounting for listed companies. It also discusses the experience of European companies, where 25 countries adopted IFRS in 2005. The second chapter analyzes the position in the United States. It looks at the advantages and disadvantages for corporations and explains the convergence program being followed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the IASB. It also looks at the SEC's activities in this area and then sets out the challenges to be addressed by U.S. corporations if IFRS are adopted.

Canada has made the decision to switch in 2011, and the Canadian experience is discussed as offering a blueprint for the United States. This is followed by an extensive analysis of the technical differences between IFRS and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

The last two chapters explain the organizational structure of the IASB and its standard-setting process, and then the evolution of the international standard-setter from its beginning in 1973.

Front Jacket

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are becoming the benchmark accounting standards for companies listed on international stock exchanges. The SEC treats them as equivalent of US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and is even contemplating allowing their use instead of US GAAP. They are mandatory in Europe, Australia and South Africa. Canada, China, Brazil, Japan and India are planning to use them from 2011. Anybody interested in companies listed on the US stock exchanges needs to know something about them because hundreds of foreign companies are already using them to report in the US. Anybody interested in international business has to know these benchmark financial reporting rules. This book will explain the complex inter-relationships between the International Accounting Standards Board (the creator of IFRS), the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Canadian Accounting Standards Board (AcSB), their work programme and their plans for the future. It will look at a series of central accounting issues such as revenue recognition, liabilities, pensions, off-balance sheet vehicles, impairment, intangible assets etc. and discuss how IFRS differ from US and Canadian GAAP. It will explain the organisational structure and background of the IASB and it will look at the potential impacts to financial reporting by American companies.