Friday, August 29, 2008

Is International Accounting In Our Future?

Accountants: start learning a new set of rules! The Securities and Exchange Commission is moving toward using International Accounting Standards rather than U.S. GAAP.


On the front page of yesterday's (August 28, 2008) Wall Street Journal, Kara Scannell and Joanna Slater reported that the SEC has started the ball rolling to move publicly traded U.S. companies from GAAP to international standards.


They explained the timetable "The SEC's proposal would allow some large multinational companies to report earnings according to international accounting beginning in 2010. The SEC estimates at least 110 U.S. companies would qualify based on their market capitalization, among other factors. The agency also laid out a road map by which all U.S. companies would switch to International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, beginning in 2014, at the expense of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the guiding light of accountants for decades."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that us moving to an international accounting system is a good idea, the biggest reason being that we have a uniform accounting system. With the amount of countries that US business' are expanding in to, it is time that we all start using the same system. Not only will it help companies stay on the same page, but it might help companies from other countries have a better understanding of what is going on world wide!

Anonymous said...

International accounting can be a good thing and a bad thing. As the economy moves forward international trading and international business has grown exponentially and with companies now outsourcing more and more jobs it could prove to be a smart move. The concern I have, is businesses have been accustomed to these rules for years and what kind of problems it would create when filing and reporting company earnings.
-Michael Perry