IFRS framework-based case study: DaimlerChrysler – Adopting IFRS accounting policies

This instructional case applies a framework-based approach to explore the concept of comparability in financial reporting and retrospective application of new accounting policies. The DaimlerChrysler (DC) case provides an opportunity for you to research key financial reporting concepts, analyze accounting policy differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS, determine adjustments necessary to convert financial statements from U.S. GAAP to IFRS, and compute and discuss key ratio impacts following financial statement conversion. This case demonstrates that transitioning to IFRS is more than an accounting issue; it provides opportunities for financial restructuring (e.g., Daimler’s amendments to pension plans and its 2007 sale of Chrysler). It also illustrates the importance of professional judgment when initially adopting IFRS accounting policies. Also, despite FASB and IASB convergence efforts, you learn that most of the key differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS identified in DC’s reconciliations continue today. This case helps you to: (1) develop skills to interpret and apply the requirements on first-time adoption of IFRS to a real-world setting; (2) research key differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS and their effects on the financial statements and ratios; and (3) understand significant impacts of the transition to IFRS on businesses and financial statements. Completing the case develops your critical thinking and research/technological skills.     

Convergence with IFRS in an expanding Europe: progress and obstacles identified by large accounting firms’ survey

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) acquired greater legitimacy and stature when the European Union (EU) decided to require all listed companies to prepare consolidated accounts based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) beginning in 2005. This study examines the progress and perceived impediments to convergence in 17 European countries directly affected by the EU's decision. These include: (1) the 10 new EU member countries, (2) EU candidate countries, (3) European Economic Area (EEA) countries, and (4) Switzerland. We utilize data collected by the six largest international accounting firms during their 2002 convergence survey. Additionally, we analyze subsequent events and studies.While all surveyed countries will either require or effectively allow listed companies to prepare consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS by 2005, few are expected to require IFRS for non-listed companies. This suggests the development of a “two-standard” system. The two most significant impediments to convergence identified by the survey appear to be the complicated nature of particular IFRS (including financial instruments) and the tax-orientation of many national accounting systems. Other barriers to convergence include underdeveloped national capital markets, insufficient guidance on first-time application of IFRS, and limited experience with certain types of transactions (e.g. pensions).     

雷曼兄弟事件中的会计问题及启示

2008年9月15日美国第四大投行雷曼兄弟宣告破产,其中暴露出来的风险管理、公司治理、会计政策选择等问题受到广泛关注。本文在介绍投行的回购业务和会计处理的基础上,重点介绍了雷曼兄弟面临的资产负债表压力和回购政策选择,并在分析回购105交易的会计处理及相关问题后,从会计原则的遵循、高管的诚信、信息披露的完善和中介服务水平的提高等方面总结了雷曼事件的启示。     

Unintended Consequences of Changing Accounting Standards: The Case of Fair Value Accounting and Mandatory Dividends

A growing body of literature investigates the interaction of changes in accounting standards with institutions such as investor protection laws and corporate governance mechanisms. We examine the unintended consequences of fair value accounting in determining mandated preferred dividends. We study the case of Russian energy conglomerate UES, which had a good corporate governance track record and a consistent dividend history. Following its adoption of fair value accounting, UES reported the highest quarterly profit in world corporate history, but it subsequently omitted dividends for all its shareholders. The case analysis suggests that the transitory nature of fair value adjustments and the interaction with the investment policy were important considerations in justifying the dividend omission. The reduction in preferred dividends was not offset by any capital gains, and led to a wealth transfer from preferred to ordinary shareholders. Thus, requiring the use of fair value accounting when determining the dividend distribution base can lead to unintended consequences and increase agency costs for minority shareholders.     

Accountants’ Relief Foundation (ARF): A not-for-profit case examining contribution receipts and distributions

The Accountants’ Relief Foundation case study exposes students to not-for-profit (NFP) transactions and performance evaluation. Your task is to: (1) explain the advantages and restrictions associated with NFPs, (2) describe and calculate customary NFP performance metrics and assess risks, (3) determine the existence of liabilities and expenses, (4) discuss contract-timing issues, (5) evaluate differences between discretionary and non-discretionary power, (6) evaluate contribution alternatives, and (7) use primary and secondary accounting literature to solve the case.     

The operating‐financing distinction in financial reporting

This paper addresses an important issue of presentation in the financial statements, namely the distinction between, on the one hand, the obligations and associated flows arising from the provision of finance to an entity ('financing') and, on the other hand, all other activities of the entity ('operating'). This operating‐financing distinction has been wellestablished in the finance literature since the work of Miller and Modigliani (1958, 1961) and is ubiquitous and of considerable importance in practice in financial markets (e.g. Koller et al., 2005; CFA Institute, 2005; Penman, 2006). Yet accounting standards are underdeveloped in this area, and there are gaps and inconsistencies in both IFRS and US GAAP. Drawing upon the distinction between nature and function in the presentation of financial statement information, the paper contributes, first, to enhance our theoretical understanding of the operating‐financing distinction, which is currently defined in different and unreconciled ways in the literature and, second, to propose a practical basis for accounting standard‐setters to determine requirements for the reporting of financing activity in the financial statements.     

Tratamiento contable de las transacciones separadas en las combinaciones de negocios Proceso armonizador de la normativa contable internacional (IFRS) y americana (FAS)

Amendments made to 2007 Financial Accounting Standards ¾FAS 141 (R)¾ and 2008 International Financial Reporting Standards ¾IFRS 3 (R)¾ in order to harmonize the accounting aspects of operations concerning a business combination, have shown the existence of certain transactions that are not part of the combination itself, which are called “separate transactions”. The definition and delimitation of business combinations “separate transactions” is dispersed in both standards, at times with a little clarifying result. Therefore, this paper aims to facilitate the reader’s understanding of their accounting treatment to address the problem of identifying those transactions that occur, or not, as a result of a business combination, the accounting treatment for this dilemma and its effect on the recognition and valuation of goodwill.     

Monitoring Compliance with IFRS: Some Insights from the French Regulatory System

European Union Regulation 1606/2002 is aimed at improving the quality of financial reporting and developing a single capital market in Europe. Nevertheless, these goals cannot necessarily be achieved solely by making a requirement for EU companies to use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and the EU has sought to create a mechanism to oversee the appropriate application of these standards. In this paper, we describe and comment on the methods used by the French stock exchange regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), for monitoring compliance with the national reporting rules as this bears upon the issue of enforcement of IFRS in Europe as from 2005. The AMF has been chosen in our study because of its extensive experience with the review of financial statements of listed companies. Our paper draws on qualitative interviews with people involved directly in scrutinizing financial information at the AMF as well as on the experience gained from attachment to the AMF's Accounting Division. While there is recent research that addresses the issues on enforcement of accounting standards, there is still a lack of studies which discuss the relevance and effectiveness of the methods used to monitor compliance with accounting standards. Our paper may be of interest to different groups of participants including regulatory oversight bodies, auditors, producers and users of financial information in the capital markets.     

Relevance of Differences between Net Income based on IFRS and Domestic Standards for European Firms

Net income adjustments resulting from mandatory 2005 IFRS adoption in Europe are value relevant for financial and non‐financial firms. Differences in relevance of the aggregate adjustment and adjustments related to several IFRS standards, for financial and non‐financial firms and across country groups, suggest differences in domestic standards and institutions affect investors’ assessment of the relevance of IFRS accounting amounts. Despite these differences, except for French/German non‐financial firms, investors view net income measured using IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement as more relevant than that measured using domestic standards, which is notable because IAS 39 was highly controversial in Europe.     

The HM ‘Treasure's Island’: The Application of Accruals-based Accounting Standards in the UK Government

Since the 1990s, UK has been progressively adopting a governmental accounting reform purporting to interpret and mimic accounting standards and practices from the private sector. Since 2009, the UK set of accounting standards applicable to the whole of governmental entities is based upon the HM Treasury's official interpretation of the international accounting standards initially designed for commercial enterprises, the latter standards having extensively inspired the International Public Sector Accounting Standards. This article analyses some representational concerns raised by its application of a balance sheet accounting approach to the public administration, pointing to consolidation perimeter, current value measurement of assets and liabilities and the case of public–private partnerships. This theoretical analysis develops relevant implications for representation and control of public spending and borrowing in UK and in general.     

Pirate Wireless: Revenue Recognition in the Telecommunications Industry

Pirate Wireless is a telecommunications company with stores and offices all over the globe. Jim Bayley is an extremely busy professional who enters into a contract with Pirate Wireless for the ultimate purchase of a smartphone with one‐year warranty, voice and data services, Cryptonite encryption software, and an extended warranty. The case requires students to act as Assistant Controller of Pirate Wireless Corporate and determine the appropriate revenue recognition for Pirate Wireless's contract with Jim Bayley. This mandates a thorough review of the five steps of revenue recognition set forth in Revenue from Contracts with Customers, the jointly converged standard issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in May 2014. The FASB's Accounting Standards Codification 606 is effective for all U.S. public entities for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2017. The IASB's International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 15 applies to an entity's first annual IFRS financial statements for a period beginning on or after January 1, 2018. This case is appropriate for an undergraduate or graduate level Intermediate Accounting course.     

The Role and Current Status of IFRS in the Completion of National Accounting Rules – Evidence from Slovenia

Abstract

We provide an overview of the role and current status of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the development of national accounting rules in Slovenia. The basic requirements of the financial reporting in Slovenia are set in the Companies Act, while the Slovenian accounting standards (SAS) provide a detailed authoritative guidance, especially on measurement. We describe the (historical) relations of all four editions of SAS with IFRS, provide explanations for the close alignment of SAS 2006 and SAS 2016 with IFRS, and identify major differences. In addition, the paper covers the adoption of the new EU accounting Directive into Slovenian legislation.     

Value relevance of accounting information: Evidence from an emerging market

Without making any distinction of the applicable accounting standards, this paper investigates, firstly, the value relevance of accounting information from 1999 to 2012 in different segments of the Chinese stock market. This investigation includes A-shares, prepared under Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS) for domestic firms; B-shares, prepared under either the International Accounting Standards (IAS) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for both domestic and overseas firms; and H-shares prepared under either the IAS or Hong Kong GAAP for Hong Kong and overseas firms. Then, the paper examines whether or not the converged IFRS with CAS, applicable from 2007 onwards, is more value relevant when compared with prior to the 2007's standards (CAS, IAS, Hong Kong GAAP for A-share, B-share, and H-share markets, respectively). Based on 34,020 firm-year observations and after controlling for industry- and year-fixed effects, the findings suggest that accounting information is value relevant with A- and B-share markets, while it is partially relevant with the H-share market. The paper finds that the converged IFRS with CAS is more value relevant in A-shares and B-shares and it is partially more value relevant with the H-share market. These findings have implications for both policymakers and investors since they provide further empirical evidence for the current policy procedure which harmonizes local GAAP with IFRS.     

Interpreting the European Union’s IFRS Endorsement Criteria: The Case of IFRS 9

EU Regulation requires that any international accounting standards (International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS) and interpretations (IFRIC) pronounced by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) meet three sets of criteria before they become binding for EU-based companies: a ‘true and fair view’ criterion, a list of qualitative criteria, and a ‘European public good’ criterion. During the endorsement process, EU institutions evaluate each standard or interpretation’s compliance with these three criteria. Nevertheless, despite plenty of past endorsement decisions, there is still disagreement about a unanimous interpretation of the criteria in the literature. In this study, we interpret all three criteria against the background of European accounting law and academic accounting research. Then, the paper illustrates for the case of the new IFRS 9 standard on accounting for financial instruments how these criteria can be applied in the endorsement practice. We conclude that the standard cannot reasonably be rejected on grounds of the IAS Regulation. We also explain that the vagueness of the endorsement criteria and the inherent discretion in the eventual endorsement decision help maintain the EU’s political influence on the IASB’s standard-setting ex ante.     

Why is there inconsistency in accounting for liabilities in IFRS? An analysis of recognition,measurement, estimation and conservatism

We report that International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are inconsistent with respect to the recognition and measurement of liabilities, both in the conceptual framework for financial reporting and in accounting standards themselves. We demonstrate that this arises in part because the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) does not make a conceptual distinction between the process of measurement, which requires a currently observable measurement attribute, and the process of estimation, which is inherently subjective. The IASB employs only the logic and language of measurement, while actually requiring entities to report both measurements and estimates in financial statements. Our contribution is to identify and interpret this conceptual conflict, to demonstrate that this has particular relevance to accounting for liabilities, and to draw implications for accounting research and policy with respect to recognition, measurement and conservatism.     

Convergence of accounting standards and financial reporting externality: evidence from mandatory IFRS adoption

Using mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as a natural experiment, we examine whether reporting externalities can be magnified when financial disclosures are based on a common set of accounting standards. Specifically, we investigate and find that the changes in publicly available information of mandatory IFRS adopters (due to the convergence of accounting standards) can impact the investment efficiency of prior voluntary adopters. While we document positive externalities of mandatory IFRS, we also observe heterogeneity in these spillover effects at the firm and the country level, suggesting that externalities increase with improvements in the comparability of accounting information.     

会计师事务所内部治理：理论基础与机制创新

声誉、客户资源以及人力资本是会计师事务所的关键资源,也是事务所治理的主要对象.进入权是审计师控制和使用自身人力资本及其关键性非人力资本的能力.关键资源的控制和保留机制是事务所内部治理的关键所在,这一机制主要包括:决策权配置机制、剩余收益分配机制、授权机制以及合伙人遴选与退出机制.模型分析进一步表明,以进入权为基础的治理机制有利于事务所内部资源的优化配置,能够对审计师专用性人力资本投资形成有效激励.     

Convergence of accounting standards and foreign direct investment

Since the development of the eclectic paradigm by Dunning (1977, 1988, 1993), many studies have investigated different forms of location advantages that attract foreign direct investment (FDI). In this study, we consider accounting standards as a component of the institutional infrastructure of a location and hypothesize that the convergence of domestic and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) promotes FDI as it reduces information processing costs for foreign investors.² We also hypothesize that the effect of reduced information costs is stronger for partner countries whose accounting systems showed greater pre-convergence differences because they magnify the facilitating role of accounting standard convergence for FDI. Using bilateral FDI data from 30 OECD countries between 2000 and 2005, we find evidence generally consistent with these hypotheses.     

Imprecision in Accounting Measurement: Can It Be Value Enhancing?

Accounting measurements of firms' investments are usually imprecise. We study the economic consequences of such imprecision when it interacts with information asymmetry regarding an investment project's ex ante profitability, known only by the firm's managers. Absent agency and risk‐sharing considerations, we find that some degree of accounting imprecision could actually be value enhancing. We characterize the optimal degree of imprecision and identify its key determinants. The greater the information asymmetry regarding the project's profitability, the greater is the imprecision that should be tolerated in the measurement of the firm's investment.     

An Analysis of Concepts and Evidence on the Question of Whether IFRS Should be Conservative

Do international accounting standards require conservative accounting? The IASB's conceptual framework suggests that they should not, while the research literature is largely silent on the matter, typically presuming conservatism to be an outcome of private contracting rather than standardized, public, general purpose financial reporting. In this paper, we analyze the actual requirements of IFRS. We find multiple examples of recognition requirements that lead to unconditional conservatism, measurement requirements that lead to conditional conservatism, and also presentation/disclosure requirements that further support a conservative reporting environment. These findings complement, support and deepen existing evidence in the empirical literature that accounting is in practice conservative. We show, however, that the requirements for conservatism in IFRS conflict with, first, the IASB's stated position in its conceptual framework that accounting should not be conservative and, second, the private contracting explanation for conservatism that is generally accepted in the literature. What is missing, and lies behind both conflicts, is an acknowledgement and understanding of the role of an agency/contracting perspective in enhancing the decision‐usefulness of general purpose accounting standards, given the information/incentive asymmetry and uncertainty that characterizes the real‐world context in which those standards operate. From a policy perspective, such an understanding would reconcile the IASB's conceptual framework with the actual requirements of IFRS. From a research literature perspective, such an understanding would re‐position accounting standards as central to the practice of accounting conservatism, which would in turn require revision to the generally accepted theory of a private contracting explanation for the empirical evidence of conservative accounting practice.