The purpose of this paper is to discuss the differences between accounting for fixed assets under IFRS and U.S. GAAP. Primarily the discussion will be driven by the question: which standard should the FASB lobby for in its joint effort with the IASB to converge U.S. GAAP with IFRS? The paper will start by establishing that financial reporting, as it has evolved in the United States, was developed primarily to assist in the accountability relationships between management and both credit and equity investors. From there the paper will look at which standard is better suited to fulfill this goal and enhance financial reporting. It will first discuss the differences of historical cost accounting versus market values in the income statement. Next, the paper will look at the differences created in the balance sheet by the two methods. Finally, the paper will consider additional implications of switching to a market value standard. This paper will attempt to prove that historical cost accounting is the more reliable method of the two, provides an equally if not more relevant income measure, and that market values do not enhance the financial statements in any clear way. Particularly in any fashion that justifies the additional costs to the firm and to investors in debt and equity that market values would create.

Abstract Background Oil and gas is a main source of revenue for many countries. Norway is one of them. Several companies operate in these countries. The companies demand accounting to communicate to their stakeholders. The two biggest accounting regimes, IASB and USA have their own standards for the upstream activities of those companies. The standard setting bodies mandatorily require companies to comply. Norwegian listed companies, as they are in the IASB regime, must comply with the IASB standard, IFRS 6. Problem  The IASB standard has a problem of addressing the entire upstream activities of the companies Moreover, the standard has conceptual flaw. However, these oil and gas firms are required to follow it. As a remedy, the entities fill the gap by using the US GAAP, if they are listed, as the regulation requires them to follow IFRS. Thus, using these two standards coupled with the defect of the IASB standard is affecting them. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explain the effects of IFRS 6 on companies by comparing it with the US GAAP standard. In doing so, theories relevant to the issue are described and the technical gaps between the two standards are elaborated. Method  This thesis uses mixed method. The research design followed is concurrently mixing quantitative and qualitative methods. However, qualitative method dominates in the mixing. As a data collection mechanism, interview, questionnaire and documentation i.e. the annual reports of the companies are used. In the study both deductive and inductive reasoning are used. Conclusion Subsequent to making the study, the author concludes that the surveyed companies have used the US GAAP to fill the gap that IFRS possess. However, retaining two sets of accounts has economic effect and the companies are paying for that. Moreover, they expend costs for adopting the IFRS when they change their standard from US GAAP to IFRS. Moreover, it is difficult to make conclusion about diffusion of accounting method due to contagion effect. Similarly, although previous studies show that size of a firm is a determinant factor, it is tricky to make conclusion on the studied companies.

Goodwill har sedan länge varit ett kontroversiellt ämne. Genom införandet av det nya internationella regelverket IFRS kom hanteringen av goodwill att förändras. Istället för att göra årliga nedskrivningar ska nu goodwillposten hos börsnoterade företag på minst årlig basis genomgå en nedskrivningsprövning, för att se om ett nedskrivningsbehov föreligger. Detta har emellertid mottagit viss kritik, då det anses vara subjektiva bedömningar som ligger till grund. En följd av detta skulle således kunna vara att företag medvetet undviker nedskrivningar.  Kritik riktas även mot de höga goodwillposter som svenska företag redovisar. Trots den globala kris som världen har befunnit sig i sedan 2007 förefaller det som att goodwill hos svenska företag inte har påverkats i en negativ riktning. Detta kritiseras öppet av praktiserande ekonomer, samt strider mot tidigare forskning inom ämnet. Studier har funnit att makroekonomiska faktorer såsom lågkonjunktur bör leda till sänkta nivåer av goodwill, då en nedskrivning sannolikt bör vara aktuell.  För att kunna studera de fulla effekterna av en lågkonjunktur bör vidare, enligt forskning, en viss tidsfördröjning ha ägt rum. Detta åskådliggjorde ett forskningsgap över svensk ekonomi, och således något som denna uppsats ämnar fylla. Genom att studera årsredovisningar från 36 stycken svenska företag noterade på Large Cap-listan, granskades företagens andel goodwill av eget kapital. En jämförelse av goodwillposten innan lågkonjunkturen samt efter lågkonjunkturens början exekverades. För att kunna ta en eventuell effekt av en tidsfördröjning i beaktande, studerades goodwill år 2011. Ytterligare jämförelser utfördes för år 2010, 2009, 2008 och 2007 med året innan konjunkturförsämringen (som här representeras av år 2006). Detta för att undersöka om andelen goodwill i förhållande till eget kapitel minskade i ett tidigare skede av konjunkturförsämringen. Studiens resultat indikerar att de undersökta företagen inte uppvisar en lägre andel goodwill efter lågkonjunkturens början. Data visar att goodwillposten de facto var högre efter lågkonjunkturens början än innan. Detta strider mot tidigare forskning, samt är avvikande mot den trend som kan observeras i andra länder som exempelvis USA. Då även länder som USA tillämpar ett regelverk som anses vara ekvivalent med IFRS, är måhända subjektiva bedömningar av goodwillpostens värde otillräckligt för att förklara de höga goodwillposterna som förekommer i Sverige. En förklaring som eventuellt kan anses ligga bakom denna diskrepens av erhållna resultat för svenska företag och tidigare forskning om lågkonjunktur, är den svenska ekonomin. Begreppet tigerekonomi har använts för att beskriva den styrka och beständighet som har illustrerats i den svenska återhämtningen från finanskrisen.

This study examines the association between changes in accounting performance resulting from mandated adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and managerial incentives to engage in opportunistic equity issuance. Based on 2,719 Australian and the European Union firms that are required to adopt IFRS starting in 2005, I find that firms disclosing a material decline in reported net income under IFRS relative to reported net income under local standards are revalued downwards, while firms disclosing a material improvement in reported net income under IFRS relative to reported net income under local standards are revalued upwards. This indicates that relative to financial statements prepared according to local accounting standards, financial statements under IFRS convey new information that impacts market value. Building on the market timing hypothesis, I find that managers exploit their private information about the effects of changes in accounting standards on accounting performance and that managers strategically time equity issuance before their firms disclose those effects. In particular, during the three-year window prior to a firm disclosing the financial statement effects of IFRS adoption, the firm’s likelihood and size of equity issuance are negatively associated with the change in reported net income resulting from IFRS adoption. This is consistent with the prediction that firms whose reported performance is negatively affected by mandated changes in accounting standards are more likely to issue equity and issue a larger volume of equity in advance of the disclosure of those negative effects. The association between equity issuance and the relative decline in accounting performance resulting from IFRS adoption is robust to alternative definitions of equity issuers, specifications and measures of accounting performance, and changes in sample composition. I find some evidence that equity issuance is positively associated with earnings forecast optimism, where earnings forecast optimism is another proxy for information asymmetry arising from mandatory adoption of IFRS. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2008-07-10 17:39:27.512

[Truncated abstract] Following the introduction in 1999 of Australian Accounting Standard Board (AASB) 1041: 'Revaluations of Non-Current Assets' (Australian Accounting Standards Board 2001a), this study set out to examine the impact of the introduction of this new standard on: the number (percentage) of Australian firms revaluing various classes and submajor classes of non-current assets; and the value relevance and reliability of the information provided with respect to various sub-major classes of non-current assets. The study also set out to examine the apparent motivations for Australian companies electing the fair value (FV) basis, rather than the historic cost (HC) basis, for reporting property, plant and equipment (PP&E). The sample analysed in this study consisted of Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed firms that were included in each of the Connect4, Aspect Financial and Core Research Data (CRD) databases. After excluding firms not covered by all three databases and firms where there were missing data problems, 398 and 424 firms were left in the 1999 and 2002 samples, respectively. Of the 398 and 424 firms, there were 194 firms that were common to both sample periods and a separate analysis of these 'common' firms allowed a 'like-for-like' comparison to be made. The financial year ending June 30, 1999 provides data under the previous standard AASB 1010 (Australian Accounting Standards Board 2000) before the introduction of AASB 1041, while the financial year ending 30 June 2002 provides data under AASB 1041 (the new standard). ... At the disaggregated level (that is, for various sub-major classes of non-current assets), it appears that there was a decline in the number (percentage) of firms choosing to revalue investment property, property, and plant and equipment, while there was no change in the number (percentage) of firms choosing to revalue listed or unlisted investments. It appears that AASB 1041's requirement to revalue frequently when the FV basis was adopted discouraged firms from choosing the FV basis for some asset classes, presumably because the costs associated with frequent revaluations outweighed the perceived benefits. In terms of value relevance, the results suggest that where the variables of interest are scaled there was no improvement in the value relevance of the information provided by Australian companies following the introduction of AASB 1041. However, the results from the unscaled regressions do not support this conclusion and instead suggest that the introduction of AASB 1041 was associated with an overall improvement in the value relevance of the information provided with respect to the various sub-major classes of non-current assets investigated in this study. Resolution of this conflicting result is beyond the scope of this dissertation and is an issue worthy of future research. In terms of reliability, the results suggest that the introduction of AASB 1041 was generally associated with: an improvement in the reliability of information reported with respect to non-current assets reported at FV; and a deterioration in the reliability of information reported with respect to non-current assets reported at HC. Finally, with respect to the potential motivations behind a company's choice of the FV basis for reporting PP&E, the results suggest that firms are motivated to revalue PP&E to: improve their borrowing capacity; for signalling purposes; and to reduce information asymmetry.

The main objective of my thesis was to explain US GAAP to Czech public by comparing operations that are reported differently according to Czech accounting system and the US GAAP. Accounting of fixed assets of the Company was chosen as specific area of comparision due to its great significance in total assets and due to my personal experience in this area.

Purpose - the purpose of this thesis is to investigate earnings management in an emerging economy without market force. We use discretionary loan loss provisions (DLLP) to proxy earnings management, which constitute a material portion of the total accruals in the banking industry. We examine this abnormal behavior in the financial statements prepared under US GAAP and IFRS. Specifically, we try to find the differences in managerial opportunistic behavior that might exist in the two accounting regimes. We also examine the micro economy and regulatory factors that might influence the earnings behavior in the banks. Design/method/approach - This empirical investigation uses an unbalanced panel data of five commercial banks in Liberia for a period of six years, 2010 to 2012 before and 2013 to 2016 after IFRS adoption. The data generated from the audited financial statements of the commercial banks were analyzed with two sample t test and multiple linear regression. We also run robustness check with same statistical procedures to validate the results. Findings - the empirical results show a statistically insignificant difference in earnings management after the adoption of IFRS, which means the introduction of IFRS did not have significant effect on earnings management practices in the banks. Additionally, we found no significant relationship between Liberia GDP growth and DLLP. Finally, we discovered a positive insignificant relationship between the capital adequacy ratio and DLLP as predicted. Originality/value - the result of this thesis advances the understanding of earnings management under US GAAP and IFRS in an emerging economy. As most of the existing literature conducted on earnings management are mainly focused on developed economy with capital market and data from non-financial institutions. This thesis fills a gap in the existing literature by studying managerial discretion in an unusual environment. The results of our findings inform regulators, investors, auditors and standards setters considering IFRS adoption.

Rapid digitization of enterprise processes and software applications simplifying daily-life routines enhance the need for software arrangements. Based on this growing trend, the underlying thesis discusses revenue recognition for software arrangements under US GAAP, the lingua franca of financial reporting framework in software industry. The thesis examines the first industry-specific guidance - SOP 97-2, its successor ASC 605 and aims at capturing the main implications resulting from the new converged US GAAP/ IFRS revenue recognition standard ASC 606/ IFRS 15 on a case study. The five-step revenue recognition model introduced by ASC 606 is applied to the US-based technology and software seller Apple Inc. and its wide range of product portfolio including software.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the process of reorganization under the US laws and accounting standards. The first chapter contains legislation, description of the parties and their role during the insolvency proceedings. It covers the role of the debtor, creditors, creditors' committee, insolvency trustee and insolvency court throughout the insolvency proceedings. The second part focuses on accounting under US GAAP based primarily on the ASC 852, which describes in detail the cases and items that are treated differently during the reorganization. The third part includes legal and accounting analysis of the American paper company NewPage Holdings Inc., which successfully emerged from bancruptcy in 2012.

Disertační práce je zaměřena na popis, analýzu a syntézu významných účetních a ekonomických teorií zisku, nalezení jejich společných znaků a posouzení možností jejich využitelnosti v účetní praxi. V reakci na pokračující globalizaci ekonomiky a rostoucí poptávku po kvalitních účetních informacích jsme svědky posunu tradičního účetního paradigmatu. Výsledkem je nový obsah účetního zisku, který se významně přibližuje zisku ekonomickému. Nový koncepční přístup, který je v souladu s ekonomickou i účetní teorií, ovšem představuje výrazný odklon od tradiční praxe.