What is the possibility of the Securities and Exchange Commission substituting IFRS for GAAP?
Many people believe that acceptance of IFRS in the United States by the SEC for public companies are inevitable. For many years, the SEC has been expressing its support for a core set of accounting standards that could serve as a framework for financial reporting in cross-border offerings, and has supported efforts of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the IASB to develop a common set of high-quality global standards. On November 14, 2008, the SEC issued for public comment a roadmap that proposes a staged transition for mandatory adoption of IFRS by U.S. public companies. While new SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, appointed by President Obama, has indicated she is not necessarily committed to the roadmap issued under her predecessor (Christopher Cox), the financial regulatory reform proposals President Obama released on June 17 called for accounting-standard setters to make substantial progress toward development of a single set of high-quality global accounting standards
Many people believe that acceptance of IFRS in the United States by the SEC for public companies is inevitable. For many years the SEC has been expressing its support for a core set of accounting standards that could serve as a framework for financial reporting in cross-border offerings. In recent years, it has supported efforts of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the IASB to develop a common set of high-quality, global standards. And most recently, it issued a Concept Release seeking input on allowing U.S. public companies to use IFRS when preparing financial statements. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox also announced that later this year the SEC staff will formally propose to the Commission an updated “roadmap” that will lay out a schedule and appropriate milestones for continuing U.S. progress toward acceptance of IFRS. The bottom line is that CPAs need to begin to prepare for the day in the not-so-distant future when the SEC could designate a date for voluntary, or e
For many years, the SEC has been expressing its support for a core set of accounting standards that could serve as a framework for financial reporting in cross-border offerings. Most recently on February 24, 2010, the SEC issued release Nos. 33-9109 and 34-61578, Commission Statement in Support of Convergence and Global Accounting Standards. In the release, the SEC stated its continued belief that a single set of high-quality globally accepted accounting standards would benefit U.S. investors and its continued encouragement for the convergence of U.S. GAAP and IFRS. The release also called for the development of a work plan (the “Work Plan”) to enhance both the understanding of the SEC’s purpose and public transparency in this area. Execution of the Work Plan, combined with the completion of previously agreed upon convergence projects between the FASB and IASB according to their current schedule, will permit the SEC to make a determination, in 2011, regarding incorporating IFRS into th
