Global Standards
Assignment 13-2
Professor
Differences Between US GAAP and IAS
International Accounting Standards (IAS) are issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and these set the standards for companies that are locally listed, as well as those that are not, for which they are obligated to follow in countries that have accepted those standards (Difference Between IAS and IFRS, n.d.). The IAS started in the mid 1960’s (1966). In 1973, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was established; mandated with releasing new international standards, which were rapidly accepted and implemented worldwide (Difference Between IAS and IFRS, n.d.). The same article states that the IASC lasted until 2001, when it was restructured to become the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
The IASC released a series of accounting standards known as the International Accounting Standards between 1973 and 2000, which were numbered and ordered starting with IAS 1 and ended with IAS 41. When the IASB was established, they adopted the already set standards IAS 1-41 but agreed that any standards published after that point would follow a series known as the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) (Difference Between IAS and IFRS, n.d.). The main difference between IAS and IFRS is that the IAS were published by the IASC between 1973 and 2001, and the standards for IFRS were published by the IASB starting from 2001. Any principles within IFRS that may be contradictory will supersede those of the IAS.
U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are a common set of accounting principles, standards and procedures that companies use to compile their financial statements (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, n.d.). GAAP are a combination of authoritative standards and quite simply, the commonly accepted ways of recording and reporting accounting information.
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