CPAS STARTING TO ACCEPT IFRSNew York - Accountants in the U.S. are increasingly starting to prepare for the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards, according to a survey by the American Institute of CPAs.
A 55 percent majority of CPAs at firms and companies nationwide now say that they are preparing in a variety of ways for the adoption of IFRS, an increase of 14 percentage points from the 41 percent who told the AICPA they were preparing for the change in April. The latest results are based on 1,495 AICPA members who responded to an online survey.
At the same time, the number of respondents who aren't yet preparing for IFRS dropped by an equal amount. Forty-five percent now say they are not yet preparing for IFRS, a drop of 14 percentage points from the 59 percent in April who had said that they weren't preparing for IFRS. According to the new survey, a 65.2 percent majority of CPAs said that they have some knowledge of IFRS but need to learn more. In May, the AICPA set up a new Web site, www.ifrs.com, to help CPAs become better informed about IFRS.
The SEC formally issued a proposed roadmap on Nov. 14 that would allow approximately 110 of the largest U.S. multinational companies to adopt IFRS beginning in 2010. Most other U.S. publicly traded companies would phase in the use of IFRS between 2014 and 2016.
FASB TO LAUNCH NEW STANDARDS CODIFICATION IN JULY
Norwalk, Conn. - The Financial Accounting Standards Board plans to introduce a new official accounting standards codification on July 1 that will supersede other sources, including the American Institute of CPAs.
The FASB Accounting Standards Codification will provide an authoritative source for nongovernmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, superseding the existing literature from FASB, the AICPA, the Emerging Issues Task Force and other sources.
After that date, only one level of authoritative GAAP will exist. All other literature will be considered non-authoritative.
Last January, FASB made the codification available for free for an extended verification period and asked for comments. The codification re-organizes thousands of U.S. GAAP pronouncements into roughly 90 topics and displays all the topics using a consistent structure. Also included is relevant guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission that will follow the same topical structure in separate sections in the codification. The codification does not change GAAP, but organizes it into a more user-friendly online research system.
