Chapter 7 - Accounting Standards Flashcards
UK companies including the subsidiaries of quoted companies were previously allowed to use UK generally accepted accounting principles (old UK GAAP) a new accounting standard (FRS 102) has been published that has become…
The new UK GAAP in 2015
The IFRS foundation should develop a single set of high quality, understandable, enforceable, and globally accepted international financial reporting standards through its standard setting body, the…
International accounting standards board
The IFRS foundation should ?????? The use and rigorous application of those standards
Promote
The IFRS foundation should take account of the financial reporting needs of emerging economies and…
Small and medium sized entities
The IFRS foundation should promote and facilitate the adoption of IFRS, being the standards and interpretations used by the IASB through the convergence of IFRS and…
National accounting standards
The governance and oversight of the activities undertaken by the IFRS foundation and its standard setting body rests with its…
Trustees
The IFRS foundation trustees are responsible for…
Safeguarding the independence of IASB and ensuring the financing of the organisation. The trustees are publicly accountable to a monitoring board of public authorities.
The IASB stands for?
International accounting standards board
The IASB is supported by the IFRS interpretations committee whose role is to offer guidance where…
Divergence in practice occurs and by a range of advisory bodies.
The IASB cooperates with national accounting standard setters to achieve convergence in accounting standards around the world, in the UK this is the ????? And in the USA this is the ???????
Financial reporting council, in the USA this is the financial accounting standards board
IASB uses different terminology from UK GAAP, for instance, balance sheet is called… And profit and loss account is called…
Statement of financial position, and income statement or statement of comprehensive income
From 2005 companies listed on the stock exchange, in common with all companies listed on EU stock exchange were required to prepare their ?????????? ???????? Folllowing ????
Consolidated accounts following IFRS
UK companies not listed on the London stock exchange are free to use IFRS however many companies have shown a reluctance to…
Move away from UK generally accepted accounting principles
Most major economies require of allow the use of…
IFRS
The vision of global accounting standards has been publically supported by many international organisations including…
G20, world bank, IMF and Basel committee
In the USA, the securities exchange commission allows overseas firms to use IFRS (the international version not the EU version) when doing business or listing securities in the USA and has been considering whether to allow US firms to use IFRS instead of …
US GAAP
Some commentators have suggested that USA will keep…
Its own accounting standards and not adopt IFRS
IFRS only apply in the EU after they have been…
Formally endorsed
The EU has set up the accounting regulatory committee which is composed of representatives from ???????? And role is to ????????
Member states, and role is to endorse IFRS for use by quoted companies
The ARC (accounting regulatory committee) will take account of a recommendation from…
EFRAG (European financial reporting advisory group) in deciding whether to endorse a standard.
The European financial reporting advisory group is composed of representatives from European national standard setters, the major accounting firms and…
Industry groups.
In regards to endorsement, the European Parliament has to..
Approve
IFRS are applied in the EU may differ from that used elsewhere. The ARC has endorsed the majority of standards without making changes. It deleted some wording, in relation to…
Fair value option and hedge accounting, in IAS 39 (financial instruments recognition and measurement)
Which two underlying assumptions are used in IFRS?
- Accruals basis
2. Going concern
What is the accruals basis?
The effect of transactions and other events recognised when they occur, not as cash is received or paid.
What is going concern?
The financial statements are prepared on the basis that an entity will continue in operation for the foreseeable future. If management has significant concerns about the entities ability to continue as a going concern, the uncertainties must be disclosed. Of management concludes that the entity is not a going concern, the financial statements should not be prepared on a going concern basis, in which case international accounting standard 1 requires a series of disclosures.
The IFRS framework describes the quantitive charetierstcs of financial statements as being…
- understandability
- relevance
- reliability and
- comparability
The IFRS framework sets out the statement of financial position (balance sheet) as comprising …
Assets, Liabilities and equities
Assets are…
Resources controlled by the entity as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity
Liabilities are…
A present obligation of the entity arising from past events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the entity of resources embodying economic benefits
Equity is…
Residual interest in the assets of the entity after deducting all its liabilities.
The statement of comprehensive income (income statement) compromises…
- income is increases in economic benefits during the accounting period in the form of inflows or enhancements of assets or reductions in liabilities
- expenses are decreases in such economic benefits
An item is recognised in the financial statements when it is probable that a future…
Economic benefit will flow to or from an entity and when the item has cost or value that be measured with reliability.
For many years company law on the UK has required all companies to prepare financial statements each year which give a …
True and fair view
The companies act 2006 incorporates a requirement which applies to all financial statements, whether or not they are prepared in accordance with IFRS that the directors must….
Not approve them unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view
The requirement to show a true and fair view is not an equivalent requirement in…
The USA and most European countries
In most other countries than the UK, accounts are taken to present a company’s results fairly if they comply with…
Accounting standards
True and fair is not defined in legislation but has been generally interpreted as giving….
A faithful representation of the financial performance of a company for the period, it’s financial position, and where relevant, it’s cash flows at the end of the period.
If directors conclude that compliance with an accounting standard would be misleading and conflict with the requirement to give a true and fair view, the entity is required to…
Depart from the accounting standard, with detailed disclosure of nature, reasons, and impact of the departure. This is only expected to happen in very rare occasions.
In June 2014 the FRC published a statement reconfirming the importance of the true and fair view requirement. Stephen Haddrill, chief executive of the FRC has said…
“The requirement to present a true and fair view in financial statements is enshrined in EU and UK law. This statement confirms the fundamental importance of this concept to UK GAAP and IFRS.
The statement issued by FRC reminds preparers of accounts that professional judgement is still important. (True and fair etc) it applies to all states of preparation of accounts, good practice is in the following examples:
- where there is a choice of accounting policies allowed under accounting standards, ensuring that those selected are appropriate, taking into account the circumstances of the company
- establishing accounting policies for items not specifically covered by accounting standards of where they are ambiguous
- making judgments for example about valuation, aimed at giving a true and fair view.
- not using detailed accounting rules as an excuse for poor accounting
- considering what is and what is not materiel
- giving appropriate disclosures even where not specifically required by accounting standards
- ensuring that significant information is not obscured by immaterial or irrelevant disclosures
- standing back at the end of the accounts process and making sure the accounts overall do give a “true and fair” view
The IASB together with the financial accounting standards board FASB its U.S. Equivalent, created the financial crisis advisory group to committee financial reporting issues arising from the…
Global financial crisis
Financial crisis advisory group reported in July 2009 and the chief areas addressed were:
- effective financial reporting
- limitations of financial reporting
- convergence of accounting standards
- standard setter independence and accountability
In 2009 the FCAG reported the financial crisis had exposed weakness in accounting standards and their application. These weakness reduced the credibility of financial reporting, which in part contributed to the general loss of confidence in the financial system. The weaknesses primarily involved:
- the difficulty of applying fair value (market to market) accounting in illiquid markets
- the delayed recognition of losses associated with loans (particularly banks)
- issues surrounding the broad range of off balance sheet financing structures, especially in the USA
- the extraordinary complexity of accounting standards for financial instruments, including multiple approaches to re confusing asset impairment.
There is currently no comprehensive …….. Standard
IFRS insurance accounting standard
???? ? Is the standard that relates to insurance contracts, but this mainly deals with the definition of an insurance contract and guidance in presentation and disclosure requirements.
IFRS 4