Website on International Financial Reporting Standards by AICPA

AICPA has launched a new web site www.ifrs.com as the start of an initiative to educate the auditors and accounting professionals about International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The acceptance of a single accounting standard all over the world is now gaining momentum rapidly.

There are more than 12,000 public companies in nearly 100 countries have already adopted the use of IFRS. Apart from the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Israel have essentially adopted IFRS as their national standards. Canada joins the list for publicly accountable entities in 2011. The Accounting Standards Board of Japan and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have also planned convergence by 2011.

In the United States, the growing acceptance of IFRS as a basis for financial reporting represents a fundamental change for the accounting professionals. In Nov. 2007, the Securities Exchange Commission decided to accept the financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS, as issued by the IASB, without any reconciliation to U.S. GAAP.

The AICPA governing Council has already recognized the IASB as an international accounting standard setter, which allows Certified Public Accountants in the US to state in their reports on financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS that those financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Source: AICPA Website www.ifrs.com