LETTER: Not all pracs accept move to IFRS

I would beg to differ with your opening supposition this month ("Firms jogging, not sprinting to IFRS," Feb. 15-March 14, 2010), in which you stated that, "U.S. firms and practitioners have accepted the when, not if, scenario, regarding IFRS convergence."

I couldn't disagree more strongly. While you are likely preaching to the choir of big CPA firms who have much to gain (as they did from Sarbanes-Oxley), I am just as confident that many or most smaller firms would state that they are at the other end of a tug-of-war rope and pulling back.

Professors Miller & Bahnson followed with a great article ("Deja vu all over again: IFRS convergence and the 150-hour requirement," page 14) that articulated the position of many of us in smaller practices. We had the 150-hour requirement crammed down our throats, and now IFRS.

Unfortunately, in the end, it's our clients that will suffer from having to adopt this new accounting regime - just like it was the students who had to suffer for our decision to add the 150-hour requirement. Our clients couldn't care less about how a company in Japan is accounting for a transaction, and they are just fine with a "rules-based" regime that allows for comparability between financial statements. These are non-public companies that do not have to answer to investors, supposedly the primary benefactors of the push to IFRS.

With some 30 million businesses in the U.S., and only 18,000 or so with greater than 500 employees, I am confident that the voices of reason are much more numerous, just not as loud. As the professors posited at the end of their article, the membership voted overwhelmingly to reject the "Cognitor" debacle as all show and no real value, and they are confident that the same will happen with the IFRS push. I too prefer to hold on to my end of the rope and keep tugging!

Gary Strohm

Strohm Ballweg LLP

Madison, Wis.

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