Implementation Concerns about IFRS Adoption in the U.S.

Steven M. Mintz

Steven M. Mintz

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Orfalea College of Business, USA

Volume 5: 2010, pp. 97-116; ABSTRACT

The support of the accounting profession in the U.S. for IFRS adoption and the progress of the convergence process all lead to the conclusion that many things are lined up for IFRS adoption. Still, important questions exist such as the extent of adoption for public and non-public companies. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current status of IFRS implementation in the U.S. and educational strategies to deal with the situation. Several important implementation questions exist about the eventual form and structure of IFRS in the U.S. including the possibility of having a dual set of GAAP-IFRS and/or full IFRS-IFRS for SME standards. Concerns also exist about regulatory and enforcement and legal liability issues. The paper examines educational implementation issues including whether to direct learning goals to accounting majors and/or nonmajors given that the latter are more concerned with the use of IFRS-based financial information for analysis and decision making. Accounting educators should incorporate IFRS into their curriculum because it is expected by the large CPA firms that already apply IFRS in foreign subsidiary reports. Even if accounting and finance students do not work in the accounting profession, it is quite possible that the companies they do work for will be affected by IFRS in one way or another.

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