...Table of content Part 1……………………………………...…………………….…………2-5 Advantages of harmonization…………………….…….2-3 Disadvantages of harmonization……….…………...…3-5 Part 2…………………………………………………...………...…………6-8 Importance………………...…………….………….….6-7 Challenges in reducing disclosures……………………7-8 Reference……………………………………...……………………………9-10 Coursework Part 1: Harmonization of international accounting standards Every organization has their own accounting systems and standards. If every organization is preparing its financial reports in their own way, it is difficult for the users of accounting to use the financial reports. (Kirk, & Miller, 1986) Harmonization of international accounting standards as the trend for globalization in business becomes increasingly important for economic success, many issues arise through international business practices for corporations, governments, and investors. There are many potential advantages and disadvantages/challenges associated with harmonization of accounting standards. (John, 2013) Advantages 1) Reduced Reporting Costs Multinationals operating in countries with different accounting standards would incur high costs of preparing financial reports in accordance with each country’s accounting principles, then repeating the whole process for consolidation purposes. Harmonized accounting standards benefits multinational corporations because they can prepare one report rather than one...
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...“Islamic Accounting : Their Position in International Standard Harmonization” Rendy Anggita Putra “Islamic Accounting : Their Position in International Standard Harmonization” 1. Abstract According to (Susela, 1999) said the development of accounting theories is are affected by several factors including political and economic interests of certain people or group in community. Therefore, it can be also called if the accounting is a significant tool to illustrate the interests and perspectives of the various stakeholders. Islamic industry of finance has obtained tremendous growth in last few years, both in number of assets that manage by industry and in the diversity of financial products. A global system that can rule the industry will become significantly important for the Islamic finance sector in order to meet the needs of continued growth (Vinnicombe, 2012). Harmonization of Shari’a accounting standards has continue to be made by the AAOIFI as it is also done by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) for conventional accounting harmonization. In its development, financial reporting in Islamic accounting adds some different additional reports than conventional accounting to accommodate the unique transactions of Islamic economics. In that regard, this paper have objective to explore the main important values of Shari’a accounting and reporting standards of Islamic Accounting and try to find the answers of Islamic accounting positions among the process...
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...AC504: Ethical Issues in Business and Accounting Assignment #6 for Professor Gates By Nicholas Gainsbrugh Overview of the Australian Accounting Standards Board and Harmonization with IFRS Nicholas Gainsbrugh Unit 6 Assignment for Prof. Gates Assignment: An Overview of the Australian Accounting Standards Board and Harmonization with IFRS Abstract: The accounting profession in Australia is thriving. The number of accountants employed at the professional level has risen strongly over the past decade, from around one hundred thousand in 1997to over one hundred fifty thousand in 2006 and it has really skyrocketed from there for the last 6 years. This paper will discuss what actions that Australia should take with regard to the adoption or (Harmonization) of IFRS. Many dissenters have complained - pointing attention to the political dimensions of the decision. While it might be politically unattractive for Australia to surrender some of its power to set its own standards, it would also be unattractive for Australia to remain on the outside while important international agreements are being made. This paper will also look developments in the adoption and implementation of IFRS around the globe, with particular interests in certain countries that are … within scope – similar to Australia - countries such as Canada, China and India. And if harmonization is not really a sensible reality, then would compatibility be a close second? Something to hope for if you fall short...
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...------------------------------------------------- International Accounting Standards * Print * PDF * Cite * Comparable, transparent, and reliable financial information is fundamental for the smooth functioning of capital markets. In the global arena, the need for comparable standards of financial reporting has become paramount because of the dramatic growth in the number, reach, and size of multinational corporations, foreign direct investments, cross-border purchases and sales of securities, as well as the number of foreign securities listings on the stock exchanges. However, because of the social, economic, legal, and cultural differences among countries, the accounting standards and practices in different countries vary widely. The credibility of financial reports becomes questionable if similar transactions are accounted for differently in different countries. To improve the comparability of financial statements, harmonization of accounting standards is advocated. Harmonization strives to increase comparability between accounting principles by setting limits on the alternatives allowed for similar transactions. Harmonization differs from standardization in that the latter allows no room for alternatives even in cases where economic realities differ. The international accounting standards resulting from harmonization efforts create important benefits. Investors and analysts benefit from enhanced comparability of financial statements. Multinational...
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...Vol. 2, No. 2 Harmonization of Accounting Standards through Internationalization Nikhil Chandra Shil, ACMA (Corresponding Author) Department of Business Administration East West University 43, Mohakhali C/A, Dhaka – 1212, Bangladesh Tel: 9887989(Off.) ext 253, 01819289589 (M) E-mail: nikhilacc@yahoo.com Dr. Bhagaban Das P.G. Department of Business Management, Fakir Mohan University P. O.: Balasore, Pin.: 756019, Orissa, India E-mail: bhagaban_fm@yahoo.com Alok Kumar Pramanik Department of Commerce, Bhatter College P. O.: Dantan, Pin. : 721426, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India E-mail: alokdantan@sify.com Abstract The journey to have a common set of accounting standards started long before to give it a professional shape and essence. And accountants all over the world feel the necessity to shorten the gap among different streams of accounting practices through harmonization. Still, we have a couple of strong variants of accounting practices (say, for example, US GAAP, UK GAAP, IAS etc.) over the world existed and practiced simultaneously. These variants are working as threats towards harmonization of accounting practices. However, the profession has also witnessed some improvements in recent years in the process of global convergence putting some ray of hope. International and even local standard setting bodies have come up with projects of harmonization and in most of the cases became successful. The day is not far away when we will observe that accounting world is controlled...
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...International Harmonization for Accounting Harmonization is defined as the modification of changes and inconsistencies among varied measurements, procedures, or systems to make them equally well-matched. Its purpose is to make sure that GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) are prepared and fully up to date with the international policy through subtle revisions depending on the domestic conditions (Mogul, 2003). All of this is put into place to increase the similarities with the accounting principles by setting restrictions on substitute approaches to transactions; the International Accounting Standards Committee helps set these restrictions and is the main leading force in the development of the standard (McGregor, Pactor, Saudagardan & Zeff, 2000). The IASC has been an independent private sector since 1973. Due to globalization of businesses and oversees investment we have a need for harmonization. It comes from the discrepancies that are present between the accounting systems, and so the objective is to find causes that could explain the difference (Mechelli, 2009). Along with the need there are many benefits associated with harmonization. Creating harmonization enhances and ensures that the information in financial reports is of high quality and are similar to one another (McGregor, Pactor, Saudagardan & Zeff, 2000). Corporations that are world-wide no longer have to worry about preparing different reports in which they operate, and their credibility...
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...IMPEDIMENTS TO INTERNATIONAL HARMONIZATION Initially, the original idea to harmonize global accounting first met in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. The idea floated for 62 years before the United State (US), Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) formed Accountants International Study Group (AISG) in which it purpose was to study and report on accounting practices in the three countries. Then in 1973, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was established and mandated to develop worldwide accounting Standards. In 1977, the AISG was disbanded and replaced by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) to developed and enhance a coordinated worldwide accounting profession with harmonized standards[1]. However, the goal towards international accounting harmonization does not come without certain impediments in which lead to the hindrance to the harmonization process. In support to the statement above, it was noted by Nobes and Parker (2010) that among the obstacles to harmonization were, the size of the present differences between the accounting practices of different countries, the main or predominant purposes of financial reporting which are varies in between countries, the lack of international regulatory agency, nationalism and the effect of economic consequences on accounting standards. The differences between accounting practices of different countries presently can mean such matters as accounting system classification, the financial reports users and...
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...laws of companies, to form incorporated capital markets and endorse openness between counties during good and labor transfer. (Aswathapa, 2010) EU Harmonizing efforts The European Union EU has worked to harmonize accounting standards within the EU by using two directives, which are the fourth Directive (1978) and the seventh Directive (1983) that were able to enforce laws. After applying the EU new accounting standards they decided in the year 1995 to transfer to international standards. Moreover, the transfer was done by following the IASC efforts. In the year 2000 the European Union requested all the companies to follow the IFRS standards when preparing consolidated statements. (Khan, 2008) The directives used by the EU were the most appropriate way to minimize the differences between the twelve European Union countries. According to Dedman (2010) “directives are legislative instruments from the commission to the member state “. According to the fourth and the seventh company laws applied by the EU, a synchronized basis of the accounting preparation is provided, where the accounts of individual companies and group companies may be prepared. These applied laws have enhanced the performance of companies to lift the accounting standards, improve the accounting comparability and turn the cross business exchange by allowing them to exchange accounts and...
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...instead of to license or franchise to other firm and lastly, the existence of MNEs because of relevant cost and the government policies that encourage companies to perform production in other countries. MNEs can be classified into three groups: resource-seeking, market-seeking and efficiency-seeking. Resource-seeking is the search of resources in other country. While companies with market-seeking, they tend to establish subsidiaries. Those subsidiaries play a role as producer of goods to supply the market in the country of parent’s location. As for efficiency-seeking, subsidiary will have their own specialization in producing certain part. With regards to the different arguments for studying international accounting, there are several reasons for studying comparative accounting. It act as a reminder that US and Anglo-Saxon countries are not the...
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...Harmonization of the Auditor’s Report Jagdish S. Gangolly State University of New York at Albany Mohamed E. Hussein University of Connecticut Gim S. Seow University of Connecticut October 14, 1996 Revised, January 31, 1997 Revised, September 9, 1998 We acknowledge the use of foreign annual reports at Harvard University’s Baker Library, and the many hours that our research assistant K. Tam spent there. We would like to thank N. Barsky, M. Bongiovanni, T. Clausen, D. Dekadjevi, Y. Eisler, R. Fermin, F. Kapmeier, and H. Lee for their help with data collection, analyses, and translations into the English language. We are also grateful to the two anonymous referees and participants at the AAA/KPMG Peat Marwick International Accounting Research Conference and the accounting workshop at the University of Connecticut for their valuable comments and suggestions. Harmonization of the Auditor’s Report 1. Introduction The globalization of capital markets and the growth of international capital flows have heightened the significance of cross-national comprehension of corporate financial reports as well as the associated audit reports. The accounting literature is replete with assessments of the harmonization efforts and the international differences in the financial accounting area (Nair and Frank, 1981; Evans and Taylor, 1982; McKinnon and Janell, 1984; Doupnick and Taylor, 1985; Nobes, 1987; Archer, et. al., 1989; and Guenther and Hussein, 1995). However, there have been...
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...Globalization of Accounting Standards ACC 201 This year, the Securities and Exchange Committee is looking to make a decision on international rules regarding accounting standards. The United States has expressed support of accounting harmonization rather than accounting convergence. Accounting harmonization is the goal to adjust the consistencies among the different methods, procedures, or systems of other countries in order to make them more compatible with each other uniformly. Accounting convergence, on the other hand, has a distinctly different definition; it is the goal to come to an agreement on accounting standards to become a unified whole. Only a few years ago, however, the United States strongly favored convergence over harmonization. Regardless of the nitpicking of words and what the United States supports and what it does not; the task at hand, which is to create an infrastructure for global standards in accounting, is a very challenging one. The International Financial Reporting Standards is a set of accounting standards developed by a self-regulating, nonprofit organization called the International Accounting Standards Board. The IFRS is extremely important for large companies because they usually have subsidiaries in foreign countries but a major challenge for these companies, evidently, are the differences in accounting procedures. Adopting a set of international standards would allow companies to report finances to investors or auditors...
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...From Sheet of Accounting Theory Difficulties in Segment Reporting * Base of Segmentation: in case of complex business, it’s difficult to select a base for organization as well as difficult to compare. * Allocation of Common Costs: Common costs are likely to be allocated, bringing segment information into question * Pricing Inter-segment Transaction: No specific method for inter-segment pricing, different method use for cost, cost plus market price and negotiable price. * Costs of Segment Disclosure: Increased competition may result segmental disclosures where profitable segment may attract competitors, & loss making segment arise the take over situation. Foreign companies are not required to provide segmental reports. * Management Conservatism: Management determination of segments implies that what is useful to management is useful to investors. FASB’s 5 possible objective for interim reporting: 1. To estimate annual earnings 2. To make projections 3. To identify turning points 4. To evaluate Management Performance 5. To supplement the annual Report. Problems in Interim Reporting * Accounting Problems: * Inventory Problems: There are three types of problems; * Determination of Inventory quantities * Valuation of inventories * Adjustment of valuation * Matching principle: Business operations are not similar throughout the year. Resources are acquired & output may be sold & there are many...
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...Accounting standards are the product of modernization which initially becomes the rules and regulations to govern the way in preparing financial statements. In these days, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are widely implemented, yet the underlying accounting practices are still unstandardized due to various factors of economic and cultural differences, just to name a few. In 2010, proposals were issued in Australia and New Zealand which aim to harmonize the standards as adopted in both countries (KPMG, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to study whether the given option of using the indirect method in reporting cash flow statement is beneficial to the users of general purpose financial reports. The paper is divided into five parts where it started off with a brief introduction of AASB 107, following by the reasons for harmonization, the arguments for and against the (in)direct method as well as some criticisms before moving into conclusion. Cash flow is vital to determine the potential of profitable firms as most firms under the basis of accrual accounting may still present favorable profits, despite having poor cash management. The objective of AASB 107 is to require the provision of information about the historical changes in cash and cash equivalents of an entity by means of cash flow statement (Australian Accounting Standards Board [AASB], 2013). In this paper, focus is concentrated in reporting cash flow from operating activities using either the direct...
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... On the global acceptance of IAS/IFRS accounting standards: The logic and implications of the principles-based system q Salvador Carmona *, Marco Trombetta IE Business School, Calle Pinar, 15-1B, 28006 Madrid, Spain a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t The widespread acceptance of International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) makes it timely to examine their technical determinants as well as their implications for the accounting profession and the process of accounting harmonization. In this respect, we suggest that the principles-based approach to the standards and its inner flexibility enables the application of IAS/IFRS to countries with diverse accounting traditions and varying institutional conditions. Furthermore, the principles-based approach involves major changes in the expertise held by accountants and, hence, in their educational background, training programs, and in the organizational and business models of accounting firms. Finally, we submit that the standards set by the IAS/IFRS constitute a step forward in the process of accounting harmonization, although there is still far to go in the comparability of accounting measures across countries and regions. Ó 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Globalization Accounting harmonization Convergence Principles-based standards Rules-based standards 1. Introduction The harmonization of accounting standards has made considerable progress within a...
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...Accounting Standards Boards With emergence of IFRS and IASB issuing standards on the accounting world for use on an international level, the FASB, which issues standards of the accounting world in the United States and is recognized by Security and Exchange Commission as issuing official standards has decided there is a need for a harmonization project to bring about ease of use financial statements for stakeholders that use the financial statements. IASB which was formed in 2001 was originally the IASC which operated from 1973 to 2000. IASB is board which is part of the IFRS foundation which their mission is to issue international financial reporting standards through the IASB. These standards are expected to be of high quality, understandable, and enforceable. The FASB which formed in 1973 has the same mission but only for the United States. The FASB follows a specific Rules of Procedure in which they use to create standards. Standards are issued after the research has been completed which the amount of research varies on each project dependent upon the size of the project. As the standards that are issued by both boards are expected to have the same impact upon the organizations that use their standards, it is important that they meet the need that they are trying to fulfill. If the standards do not meet the quality standard that is expected the standards will be substandard. Harmonization of the FASB and IASB would bring about many advantages but also suffers from...
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