Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, IFRS.

Background
Origins of IFRS
A single set of global accounting standards has been under development for over three decades
since the International Accounting Standards Committee (“IASC”) was first established in
1973.
It wasn’t until 2005, with the advent of the European Commission’s requirement for public
companies reporting within the European Union (“EU ”) to prepare consolidated financial
statements compliant with IFRS, that IFRS began to be widely applied around the world, and the
IASB could be said to have moved significantly to achieving its goal. Australian and other
standard setters soon followed the EU and today over 100 countries (Includes Canada) either
require or permit the use of IFRS for public company reporting.

IFRSs are expected to apply for Canadian changeover in January 1, 2011.

Rationale for conversion

IFRS will improve accessibility to global capital markets, possibly reduce Canadian
companies’ cost of capital and thereby improve their global competitiveness.

Conversion timeline
The first set of annual IFRS financial statements for Example Ltd. will be for the
year ending December 31, 2011, for public Accountable companies with a December year end.

Next week we will discuss: What has happened to GAAP?

Written by
Rafik Greiss, FCA, CPA (Illinois)
Canadian IFRS Leader, Ernst & Young
Simon Sharp, CA
Senior Manager, Ernst & Young

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