Chicago - Nearly half of the nation's chief financialofficers and senior controllers polled by global CPA and business advisory firmGrant Thornton say that the U.S. should not adopt international FinancialReporting Standards until after U.S. GAAP and IFRS have converged to the pointwhere the differences are inconsequential - a time frame of between five toseven years.
Meanwhile, 27 percent of those participating in therecent survey said that IFRS should never be used, and 24 percent indicatedthat IFRS should be adopted as soon as possible - between two and five years.
Meanwhile, 81 percent of those surveyed revealed thattheir companies did not prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS.
"While there is movement toward greater acceptanceof International Financial Reporting Standards based on our previous surveys,it is clear that there is still much work to be done in educating the U.S.financial community on the benefits of IFRS," said Grant Thornton CEOStephen Chipman.
Some 57 percent of the 516 senior financial executivessurveyed believe that the Financial Accounting Standards Board should set U.S.accounting standards for companies that file with the Securities and ExchangeCommission, while 19 percent said it should be the International AccountingStandards Board, and 12 percent believe said it should be the SEC.
The poll also found that eight in 10 CFOs are notcurrently reporting financial results using eXtensible Business ReportingLanguage (XBRL), with 76 percent indicating they have no plans to do so in thefuture.
