A majority of CFOs and senior comptrollers do not agree with proposals to allow companies to file financial statements in International Financial Reporting Standards instead of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, according to a newly released survey by accounting firm Grant Thornton.
The survey found that 56.11 percent of the financial executives do not agree with a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to allow foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges to file financial statements prepared according to IFRS without reconciliation to U.S. GAAP. In addition, 77.38 percent of the respondents said they do not have experience preparing financial statements according to IFRS.
When asked if all U.S. firms should be permitted to use IFRS in financial statements filed with the SEC instead of U.S. GAAP, a majority of the answers again were negative, with 55.66 percent saying no and 41.63 percent saying yes.
An overwhelming majority of the respondents, 78.28 percent, believe that today's accounting standards are too complex. A majority of them, 67.42 percent, favor principles-based standards that provide for the use of professional judgment, as opposed to rules-based standards, which only 30.32 percent prefer.
