Course Project, IFRS

Running head: INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS 1
International Financial Reporting Standards
Yavrum Taghizade
Keller School of Management
ACCT 525
Instructor: Tanya Haddad
February 24, 2015

INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS 2
Introduction
Today’s economy is continuously evolving and for efficient allocation of resources across
the world, a set of global accounting standards is needed (Hong, Rich, Michenzi, & Cherubini,
2011). International financial reporting standards (IFRS) are a set of accounting standards
established for the preparation of public company financial statements based on the Anglo-
American reporting framework (Alon, 2013). IFRS include principle-based standards; it
establishes broad rules emphasizing interpretation, rather than specific rulings to rely on
(Gornik-Tomaszewski, & Showerman, 2010). The widespread adoption of IFRS by many
developing countries leads to increasing transparency, comparability, and reliability in financial
reporting (Alon, 2013). As of January 2015, more than one hundred and twenty nations require
or allow the use of IFRS for their financial reporting (IFRS.com).
History of IFRS
The International Accounting Standards Board
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) was established in 2001 with the
main purpose of developing a single reporting system for the world (IFRS.org). It is an
independent organization that is funded privately by contributions from industrial companies,
accounting firms, banks, financial institutions and other organizations (IFRS.com). The IASB is
an independent group of 15 members with mixed experience in standard setting, auditing, and
preparing financials with different geographical and cultural backgrounds (IFRS.org). These
members are in charge of the development of IFRS and approving Interpretations. All of the
meetings of the board are held publicly to assure transparency in due process (IFRS.org).
International Accounting Standards

International Accounting Standards (IAS) are accounting standards created by the
International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), the predecessor of the IASB
(IFRS.com). In early 1966, United Kingdom (UK) proposed the idea of the international Study
Group to publish important accounting issues every few month (IASplus.com). This experience
emphasized the need for united accounting system among countries. In June 1973, the IASC was
created with the purpose of establishing IAS, and from 1973 to 2001 it released 42 accounting
standards (IASplus.com). In April of 2001, the IASC was restructured into the IASB and
publishes standards called IFRS (IFRS.org).
Organization and Structure of IFRS
As mentioned before, IFRS formed in April 2001 replacing the United Kingdom Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles (UK GAAP). The standards gained popularity after the
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the IASB agreed upon a joint program for
convergence, and the European Union agreed to fully adopt IFRS starting in 2005 (IFRS.org).
By 2013, the European Union, Canada, Russia, most of South America (Mexico, Brazil and
Argentina), Asia (Japan, China and North Korea), and Australia were on board with IFRS
(IFRS.org).
The structure of IFRS includes three different stages: independent standard-setting,
governance and oversight, and public accountability (IFRS.org). The IASB and IFRS
interpretations committee are part of stage one and relate to the IFRS Foundation, a not-for-profit
organization with the main purpose of developing a single set of high-quality standards,
including those for small and medium sized entities (IFRS.org). The IFRS Foundation Trustees
are in charge of controlling and managing the IASB, which is stage two (IFRS.org). There are
twenty-two members from different continents appointed for a three year renewable terms each

(IFRS.org). The IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board was created in January 2009 and serves as a
link between the Trustees and the public (IFRS.org).
Electronic IFRS
Electronic IFRS is a virtual version of all authoritative accounting standards and updates in
one place (eIFRS.ifrs.org). There are different stages of access provided for users: to see
technical summaries of the standards only, users won’t have to pay anything or register with the
website. Basic access allows the entry to full standards without accompanying material; it is free
as well, but requires a registration (eIFRS.ifrs.org). Full access to standards, related material,
examples and interpretations is available at £295 (almost $450) with Professional online
subscription or at £571 (almost $870) with Comprehensive subscription for printed and
downloadable version (eIFRS.ifrs.org). The IFRS Foundation decided to make basic access to
international standards free, in order to help users that recently adopted IFRS and encourage
those who are still in process of adopting (eIFRS.ifrs.org). All of the standards are divided in
groups by topics and subtopics, and is easy to search through and navigate.
Current issues in IFRS
As mentioned above, more than one hundred nations are currently requiring or allowing
the use of IFRS. Approximately a hundred of these countries fully adopted IFRS as declared by
the IASB, acknowledging compliance with audit reports as well (IFRS.com). A number of
countries using an equivalent of IFRS structured it to satisfy the country’s cultural and regulatory
constraints; the others are using national accounting standards and permitting IFRS for publicly
traded and foreign companies.
Feedback from Countries Reporting Under IFRS

The initial IFRS adoption resulted in different feedback related to the cost of transition,
increase of investments, improved quality of financial statements and changes in Small and
Medium-sized Entities (SMEs). As mentioned before, some cultural differences became
obstacles when converging. Turkey, for instance, had rules-based accounting standards, used for
governmental purposes only and did not support transparency in financials as a part of complex
business culture; therefore IFRS adoption created resistance from businessman and accountants
in the country (Kaytmaz Balsari, & Varan, 2014).
Research conducted in Australia, interviewed financial executives among 305 publicly
listed companies about difficulties, costs and benefits of reporting under IFRS (Morris, Gray,
Pickering, & Aisbitt, 2014). Research consisted of five section survey and revealed respondents’
concerns: almost 70% of participants rated the transition as difficult and serious, the general tone
was rather pessimistic and frustrated and costs are averaged around $500,000 in total (Morris, et
al., 2014). Evidence from Jordan (Abu Risheh, & Al-Saeed, 2014) shows noticeable difference in
accounting and auditing fees as well. Research show significant increase in audit fees for
domestic CPA firms compare to the international audit companies (Abu Risheh, et al., 2014).
In 2009, the IASB issued IFRS for the SMEs, understanding SMEs important role in
global economy. (Albu, Albu, Pali-Pista, Gîrbină, Selimoglu, Kovács, & Strouhal, 2013).
Research shows that there is a strong link between accounting system and taxation in emerging
economies and the primary users of the reports are the government bodies, thus SMEs do not
benefit of adoption of IFRS as much as publicly traded companies do (Albu, et al., 2013).
Although IFRS for SMEs could have increased comparability on international level, it also stated
that the costs related to SMEs reporting under IFRS would include only trainings for employees
and reporting systems multiplication (Albu, et al., 2013).

Countries That Have Not Adopted IFRS
Currently, America and few countries in Africa and Asia are not allowing IFRS for public
or foreign countries. Some of those countries, such as the United States and Indonesia, are
working on a convergence plan, which means they are aligning standards to IFRS; publicly
traded companies must use the national standard until fully converged (IASplus.com). China and
the Philippines, on the other side, made their own modifications to IFRS due to a unique
environment and specific circumstances, leading to the adoption of an altered version
(IASplus.com).
A number of countries do not permit the use of IFRS for any entities registered with these
countries and do not have convergence in their future plans. For instance, Cote d’Ivoire and
Egypt have national standards and even though Egypt completed partial convergence in 2007, no
timeframe had been announced nor were steps towards full convergence taken (PwC, 2014).
Some of the countries are still in the middle of the adoption process, like Colombia. All of the
listed entities with parent or subsidiary company reporting under IFRS and companies with
operations consisting of exporting/importing for more than 50% will start preparing their
financial statements under IFRS in 2015 (PwC, 2014)
U.S. GAAP vs. IFRS Convergence
The ongoing convergence project started with the signing of the Norwalk Agreement in
September 2002, when the FASB and the IASB committed to developing high-quality
accounting standards that would help to prepare and compare financial statements in both
domestic and international practices (FASB.org, 2002). The agreement specified that most of the
differences between US GAAP and IFRS are to be removed and the remaining portion to be
reworked through joint efforts of the Boards (FASB.org, 2002). The initial agreement singed was

to be implemented by January 1 2005, but the work was harder than expected; therefore in 2006
the boards issued a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MoU) to confirm the shared objective
(Gornik-Tomaszewski, et al., 2010). At this point the FASB and the IASB have agreed that both
sides need improvement and decided to jointly develop replacement standards instead of
eliminating the differences (Gornik-Tomaszewski, et al., 2010). Replacing GAAP’s 25,000 page,
detailed “rule book” with IFRS’s 2,500 page broad principles guidance was impractical, as a
consequence in a later MoU in 2008, the US stated that it shifted from convergence to an
adoption. As a result, in November 2008, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a
convergence project as a roadmap for publicly-traded companies to adopt IFRS (Hong, Rich,
Michenzi, & Cherubini, 2011).
In 2012, the AICPA actively supported the convergence and expressed an aspiration for the
SEC to allow IFRS for publicly traded companies (Lin, & Fink, 2013). Despite that, as of today,
the SEC did not release an estimated convergence date, although in its July 2012 report it listed
reasons, delaying the adoption (Lin, & Fink, 2013). These include the degree of progress
between the IASB and the FASB, funding of the IASB by large accounting firms, improvements
in use of extensive business reporting language (XBRL), as well as training and education of
professional personnel (Gornik-Tomaszewski, et al., 2010).
Advantages and Disadvantages of IFRS Adoption
Most respondents, like the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
and many multinational companies, supported the concept of one international set of accounting
standards through letters with feedback or round table discussions (Gornik-Tomaszewski, et al.,
2010). Some of the advantages listed included an opportunity for companies to use the same
accounting standards for both internal and external reporting in its domestic and international

financials. It is also believed, that adopting IFRS with its principle-based approach will make
accountants and auditors in the US use more professional judgment in decision making than it
was needed before, under GAAP (Gornik-Tomaszewski, et al., 2010).
One of the disadvantages of switching to IFRS is the lack of professionally trained
accountants. IFRS is barely getting enough attention in schools and universities, not mentioning
the previous generation of accountants, who obtained their degrees and certifications long before
IFRS stepped into the United States. This means huge amounts of money are to be spent by
companies and the government to provide additional education and training, including
knowledge assessments and correcting errors made by misstatements. In response to the growing
need for IFRS trained accountants, SEC mandated to incorporate IFRS content in CPA Uniform
exam starting 2011 (IFRS.com).
Another major disadvantage of IFRS adoption is lack of standards related to industry
specifics. US GAAP has the whole section of Codification dedicated to treatment of specific
issues in various industries, when IFRS does not specify recording and recognition principles
regarding these issues.
Future of IFRS
Even if the US finishes the convergence project, the goal of one set of high-quality
standards will not be achieved. As mentioned by the IFRS Foundation Trustees, the final goal is
worldwide adoption of IFRS; convergence might be a temporary solution for the countries to
help and prepare for the full adoption (Street, 2012). At this point a lot of countries are
converged to IFRS, not fully adopted, and, unfortunately, there is no information on convergence
in countries that have not yet adopted IFRS. This makes predicting the future of IFRS that much
harder.

GAAP vs. IFRS: future of the convergence
Throughout the past decade the IASB has been working closely with the FASB on this
convergence project, and for the longest part of it, the SEC was supporting the core set of
standards to follow. Today the final decision whether to adopt IFRS is fully resting on the SEC
Commissioner’s shoulders (IFRS.com). The recent reports issued by SEC did not recommend a
specific course of action or estimated date for initial adoption of IFRS. In June 2014, at the SEC
conference, Christopher Cox (chairman of SEC 2005-2009) blamed the IASB members for sharp
behavior and lack of interest in the project (Katz, 2014). Cox implied that the IASB rarely
showed up on the meetings and even then acted as if they were absent (Katz, 2014). Although
the process is slow and exhausting, some of the goals have been achieved: a new jointly
developed revenue recognition standard, replacing more than two hundred pronouncements, was
issued in May 2014 and will become effective in the reporting period after December 2016
(Katz, 2014).
Conclusion
As a result of a successful spread of IFRS between 2002 and 2008, more than 120 nations
are using an easily comparable set of financial reporting standards. Today this progress is
slowing down as the IASB and the FASB cannot agree on a convergence plan for the United
States. This issue and lack of commitment to IFRS of some of the strongest economies put the
idea of single standards set into question. There is not enough information about countries
adopting IFRS to conclude if the world is going to have a single set of accounting standards.
Although it might be costly transition, many believe this is a short-term loss in exchange
for lifelong gain (GAA, 2012). Strong evidence exist that some of the countries using IFRS
noticed increase in foreign capital invested in domestic companies, which assumes even bigger

inflows once the whole world is united under the IFRS (GAA, 2012). Another issue related to
delayed adoption is the IASB’s unwillingness to make alterations in IFRS. Instead of
acknowledging the problem and using GAAPs many years’ experience to improve IFRS, the
IASB is waiting for the US to fully adopt IFRS, hoping for snowball effect among the remaining
“not IFRS” zones.

References
Abu Risheh, K. E., & Al-Saeed, M. A. (2014). The impact of IFRS adoption on audit fees:
evidence from Jordan. Accounting & Management Information Systems, 13(3), 520-536.
Albu, C. N., Albu, N., Pali-Pista, S. F., Gîrbină, M. M., Selimoglu, S. K., Kovács, D. M., & ...
Strouhal, J. (2013). Implementation of IFRS for SMEs in emerging economies:
stakeholder perceptions in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Turkey. Journal
of International Financial Management & Accounting, 24(2), 140-175.
doi:10.1111/jifm.12008
Alon, A. (2013). Complexity and dual institutionality: the case of IFRS adoption in
Russia. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 21(1), 42-57.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8683.2012.00927.x
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) (January 2015). IFRS FAQs.
Retrieved on January 29, 2015 from: http://www.ifrs.com/ifrs_faqs.html#q3
Electronic International Financial Accounting Standards (eIFRS). n.d. Product Comparison.
Retrieved on January 31, 2015 from: http://eifrs.ifrs.org/eifrs/ProductComparison
Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), (2002). Memorandum of understanding.
Retrieved on February 8, 2015 from: http://www.fasb.org/memorandum.pdf
Global Accounting Alliance (GAA) (2012). The future of IFRS: Information for better market
initiative. Retrieved on February 17, 2015 from:
http://www.icaew.com/en/technical/financial-reporting/ifrs/future-of-ifrs
Gornik-Tomaszewski, S., & Showerman, S. (2010). IFRS in the United States: challenges and
opportunities. Review of business, 30(2), 59-71.

Hong, Z., Rich, K. T., Michenzi, A. R., & Cherubini, J. (2011). User-oriented IFRS education in
introductory accounting at U.S. academic institutions: current status and influencing
factors. Issues in accounting education, 26(4), 725-750. doi:10.2308/iace-50058
International Accounting Standards (IAS). n.d. Retrieved on February 8, 2015 from:
http://www.iasplus.com/en/standards/ias
International Accounting Standards (IAS). n.d. Uses of IFRS by jurisdiction. Retrieved on
February 8, 2015 from: http://www.iasplus.com/en/resources/ifrs-topics/use-of-
ifrs#Note14
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), (January 2015). Members of the IASB.
Retrieved on January 22, 2015 from: http://www.ifrs.org/About-
us/IASB/Members/Pages/Members-of-the-IASB.aspx
International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), (February 2015). Retrieved on February 1,
2015 from: http://www.ifrs.org/About-us/IASB/Pages/Home.aspx
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), (January 2015). How we are structured.
Retrieved on January 25, 2015 from: http://www.ifrs.org/About-us/Pages/How-we-are-
structured.aspx
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), (February 2015). Organization History.
Retrieved on February 4, 2015 from: http://www.ifrs.org/About-us/IFRS-
Foundation/Pages/Organisation-history.aspx
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), (January 2015). Monitoring Board.
Retrieved on January 28, 2015 from: http://www.ifrs.org/About-us/Pages/Monitoring-
Board.aspx

Katz M. D (October, 2014). The split over convergence. CFO Magazine. Retrieved on February
6, 2015 from: http://ww2.cfo.com/gaap-ifrs/2014/10/split-convergence/
Kaytmaz Balsari, C., & Varan, S. (2014). IFRS implementation and studies in
Turkey. Accounting & Management Information Systems, 13(2), 373-399.
Lin, J., & Fink, P. (2013). International Financial Reporting Standards: are they right for the
United States? Journal of Global Business Issues, 7(2), 59-67.
Morris, R. D., Gray, S. J., Pickering, J., & Aisbitt, S. (2014). Preparers' perceptions of the costs
and benefits of IFRS: evidence from Australia's implementation experience. Accounting
Horizons, 28(1), 143-173. doi:10.2308/acch-50609
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (2014). IFRS adoption by country. Retrieved on February 3, 2015
from: http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/issues/ifrs-reporting/publications/assets/pwc-ifrs-
by-country-2014.pdf
Street, D. L. (2012). IFRS in the United States: if, when and how. Australian Accounting
Review, 22(3), 257-274. doi:10.1111/j.1835-2561.2012.00183.x

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