Application of international financial reporting standards in the Russian Federation. International Financial Reporting Standards Changes in accounting policies
According to official data, in 2015 the introduction of such regulations as special categories will become mandatory. The most common abbreviation for this concept is IFRS.
- stock market professional participants;
- commodity exchanges;
- non-state pension funds;
- clearing companies;
- joint-stock investment funds;
- managing organizations of the above categories.
It makes sense to start with the question: "IFRS - what is it?". This concept stands for a set of specialized documents, or rather standards, through which the regulation of the procedure for creating financial statements that are freely available to external users is carried out.
IFRS versus Russian accounting system
First of all, there is a difference in the end users of information, which includes the relevant accounting indicators, grouped according to the above standards. In particular, the Russian model was aimed at government bodies and statistics, while the international model was aimed at investors, enterprises and financial institutions. As a result, in the associated differences regarding the interests and needs for financial information, there are also different principles on which the procedure for the formation of these statements is based.
So, a mandatory rule in IFRS is the priority of content regarding the form of presentation of previously specified information. Speaking about the Russian accounting system, this moment is most often omitted.
A practical example would be a situation in which PBU is considered part of the capital of the enterprise, although with respect to their economic nature there are very few distinguishing features from bonds. In accordance with IFRS, these features are significant in order not to be reflected in equity.
The purpose of introducing IFRS to Russian enterprises
In order to form an adequately perceived and understood by users of various countries, international standards were introduced. Their purpose is to unify the compilation of the complex of documents under consideration and provide data on the activities of a company.
It is worth highlighting the list of documents defining IFRS aimed at their unification with respect to the order of creation, namely:
- balance sheet;
- Report on ;
- report about incomes and material losses;
- statement of changes in equity or other transactions in this direction;
- accounting policy.
Along with the above reports, enterprises can also generate certain reviews for the management team, which display the profit indicators of this company.
IFRS - what is it?
This accounting system looks like a specific set of documents, including the following elements:
- a preface to the provisions of the standards in question;
- clarification of the fundamental principles of preparation and the form of presentation of this type of reporting, in essence the concept of IFRS;
- standards and related interpretations to these documents.
Each of the above documents has its own significance, but is used exclusively in combination with other elements. Thus, from the list indicated earlier, it means that IFRS are standards, each of which has a specifically established structure.
The semantic aspect of the standards of the accounting system under consideration
They establish rules that determine the procedure for decoding individual transactions performed in the course of the core activities of the enterprise and reflected in the financial statements.
It is important to note that the standards adopted by the relevant body before 2001 are called International Accounting Standards or abbreviated IAS, and then, since 2001, International Financial Reporting Standards, the abbreviation of which has such a spelling - IFRS.
Current above standards
The main IFRSs developed prior to 2001 include:
International Financial Reporting Standards
The list of standards of the accounting system under consideration, adopted since 2001, is as follows:
- "Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards for the first time" (IFRS No. 1).
- “Share Based Payments” (IFRS No. 2).
- Business Combination (IFRS No. 3).
- Insurance Contracts (IFRS No. 4).
- “Non-current assets held for sale and discontinued operations” (IFRS No. 5).
- "Exploration and Evaluation of Mineral Resources" (IFRS No. 6).
What marked the current year with regards to the accounting system in question?
From official sources it became known about the readiness of the last volume of IFRS 2014, which has the name "Red Book". It contains the rules for international accounting, including those that will come into force after January 01 of the current year. An example is the included amendments to the ninth standard, called "Financial Instruments", adopted since 2001. There are also two sets of annual changes regarding IFRS 2011-2013 and IFRS 2010-2012, one interpretation on fees, the constitution of the IFRS Foundation, a detailed work plan.
What is good about this accounting system?
In order to form a financial report that is correct by international standards, IFRS will be indispensable in helping.
It is worth highlighting a number of advantages of this accounting system, which may be associated with the activities of the following entities:
- investors, as this is due to clarity, transparency, reliability and lower costs.
- Companies, because the costs of measures to attract investments are reduced, there is a unified accounting system, there is no need to harmonize financial information, the order in both internal and external accounting.
- Auditors: in view of the fact that there is uniformity in the fundamentals, there is an opportunity to participate in the adoption of relevant standards, large-scale trainings are held.
- The developers of these standards themselves - due to the fact that this is an excellent opportunity for the exchange of experience, the basis for future national standards and the convergence of existing ones.
All of the above helps once again to get an answer to the question: "IFRS - what is it?"
How to smooth the transition to IFRS?
The objectives of the reform include the following:
- Special training of accountants to the level of professional knowledge of the basics of the accounting system in question.
- Strengthening in the minds of business leaders a real interest in providing truthful and objective information.
- The final delimitation of accounting into tax, financial and managerial.
The importance of the transition is due to the fact that IFRS are standards that are a compromise between the main global accounting systems.
The attractiveness of accounting reform for businesses around the world
The IFRS financial statements under consideration can make it easier for companies from different countries to enter world-class capital markets, and will also increase the comparability of information and make it more transparent to external users.
Specifically, Russian enterprises will be able to speak the same language with their foreign counterparts and strengthen their business positions in foreign markets in terms of equality of their opportunities, as a result of which numerous prospects for international capital markets will become available.
The introduction of IFRS will have a positive impact on quality, in particular, on its improvement, and will also contribute to the renewal of information systems and staff motivation.
In addition, attracting foreign capital without reporting prepared in accordance with IFRS is currently largely difficult. And it does not matter whether this will be done either with the help of Western banks, or by entering the stock market located abroad, or by attracting private investment from abroad. Most likely, a potential foreign investor will not understand reporting prepared in accordance with PBU. Therefore, it is worth taking care of the formation of reporting regulated by IFRS.
Companies are aware of the fact that in the near future international standards will become national ones. For many firms, IFRS reports are required today to secure a significant competitive advantage by raising funds in international borrowing markets such as bonds, loans or IPOs.
Thus, all of the above helps to understand the question in more detail: "IFRS - what is it?"
Financial statements are mandatory documentation for any business activity. When enterprises cooperate, they need to get acquainted with each other's reporting. It is on the basis of its study that decisions are made regarding the possibility and form of cooperation with the enterprise.
With progressive globalization, interaction is growing not only between enterprises, but also between countries, including those with different financial systems. To make financial information provided to counterparties more complete and transparent, it should be presented in a relatively unified form.
In other words, financiers from different countries must "speak the same language." This is what led to the creation of the IFRS Committee - International Financial Reporting Standards.
Let's consider what is the purpose of this collection of documents, what exactly is included in it, and also trace the features of application in the economy of our country, especially in the light of modern reforms.
What is IFRS: how to explain to a Russian entrepreneur
International Financial Reporting Standards is a set of documents containing regulations for maintaining financial statements required for external provision, according to uniform principles. This phrase is abbreviated as IFRS (avoid the common misnomer IFRS).
The collection of texts and interpretations to them is an official translation of the original English-language documents issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) headquartered in the UK. This Committee is an autonomous organization of a private nature, the purpose of which is to unify the rules of financial accounting and their unification for international application.
To date, 105 countries of the world voluntarily comply with these standards. Of the economically leading states, only 3 do not adhere to this system:
- USA;
- Canada;
- Japan.
A number of countries, mainly in Latin America and Asia, are in a state of choice whether to adopt IFRS or the American GAAP system.
REFERENCE! Until the beginning of the 21st century, a set of rules and explanations for accounting was designated by another abbreviation - IAS (International Accounting Standards, “international accounting standards”). The modern designation of IFRS in the English literature is listed as IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).
The difference between IFRS and PBU
An approximate analogue for a Russian entrepreneur can be the term "accounting standards". But the main difference between PBU and IFRS is that the latter do not have primary documentation. If PBU dictates the rules of accounting, then IFRS proclaims its principles. We can say that IFRS is the final accounting indicator, which no longer needs to include:
- chart of accounts;
- accounting entries;
- accounting registers;
- documentary support of certain financial transactions;
- another "primary".
It follows that the very principles of accounting can be applied by each country according to its own understanding. But the end result of accounting, which creates a financial "portrait" of the company, must be drawn up according to uniform standards.
The main principle of IFRS
The meaning of IFRS as a single monetary accounting regulation is that it is not affected by international differences: cultural realities, traditions, financial models, legislative norms of different states. Economic laws are objective regardless of how they are applied. That's why fundamental principle of IFRS is the predominance of economic content over form.
This principle allows entrepreneurs in controversial cases to follow its spirit, basic provisions, and not look for ways to circumvent rigidly prescribed rules.
Additional principles governing the preparation of financial statements in accordance with IFRS:
- accrual principle;
- the principle of business continuity;
- the principle of relevance, etc.
What is included in IFRS
To date, IFRS is a combination of 44 documents and 25 explanations to them. These texts contain recommendations:
- on the composition of financial statements;
- how to take into account specific objects of attention of accountants;
- what information, where and how to reflect.
The standards are periodically changed and updated, so they are regularly amended and amended. According to the hierarchy, documents within IFRS can be divided into 4 degrees.
- The current IFRS and IAS, along with their standard annexes.
- Clarifications by the IASB (IFRIC and SIC).
- Annexes to International Standards not included in the official version.
- Recommendations for implementation in a specific country.
Who in Russia must adhere to IFRS
In the practice of domestic entrepreneurship, the preparation of reports in accordance with the requirements of IFRS is regulated by the Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 208-FZ “On Consolidated Financial Statements” dated July 27, 2010.
According to the text of this act, it is necessary to provide systematic data on the dynamics and financial performance of organizations, or, as they are referred to in international terminology, groups. These groups include the following:
- banking organizations;
- insurance companies (except enterprises for compulsory medical insurance);
- mortgage companies;
- commercial pension funds;
- investment companies;
- joint-stock companies with shares owned by the state (according to the list of the Government of the Russian Federation);
- companies whose securities are listed in official quotations.
MOREOVER, knowledge of IFRS standards is mandatory for the following categories:
- accountants;
- auditors;
- economic consultants;
- teachers of economic disciplines of higher educational institutions.
For whom IFRS is not required
The following are not subject to the Federal Law on consolidated reporting, since their activities do not enter the international market:
- state companies;
- summary reports of municipal institutions;
- summary reporting of budgetary organizations.
Domestic problems in the implementation of IFRS
Since 1998, a program has been in place in Russia to reform accounting, bringing it into line with IFRS.
The law, adopted in 2010, obliged the processing of financial statements in accordance with IFRS for the categories of organizations listed in it, starting from 2012. The adoption or suspension of a particular standard on the territory of the Russian Federation is accepted by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. It is on the website of the Ministry of Finance that the texts of IFRS in Russian are available for wide study.
Some difficulties associated with the implementation of IFRS in the Russian Federation emerged with the start of practical work on their application, mainly audit practice. You can arrange them in several directions:
- Translation difficulties. The text in Russian provided on the website of the Ministry of Finance, unfortunately, is not quite perfect as a translation. To translate the standard from official English into Russian, the work of representatives of the IASB is needed, after which the translation must go through the process of discussion by experts. Therefore, changes in IFRS in translation appear with a long delay.
- Inconsistency of the basic principle de facto. Despite the fact that the Russian reporting standards also proclaim the priority of content over form, in practice it is far from always observed. In domestic documentation, the very methods of documentary support of financial transactions are extremely strictly regulated. This makes it difficult to transform domestic accounting results into those required by IFRS.
- Different approach to assets and liabilities. In our country, property assets are classified a little differently than it is accepted by international standards. In addition, when forming a financial indicator, a market valuation of an asset is needed, which will not always be true in modern Russian realities.
- Legal inconsistencies. Accounting of any state is always included in its legislative base, it cannot be in conflict with regulatory documents. Also, you cannot use other terminology than that provided, for example, in the Tax Code and other laws. This creates some difficulties when interacting with other norms. Correcting such a legislative "stalemate" at this stage is extremely difficult, if not impossible.
- Expanding the circle of information. IFRS standards provide for a greater amount of disclosed information, including information about persons on whom financial performance depends, than is customary in the Russian Federation.
We talked about the system of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and explanations to them, which were put into effect on the territory of the Russian Federation, in ours. What is meant by the conceptual framework of financial reporting?
IFRS: conceptual framework for financial reporting
The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting is a document that has been adopted by the IASB, but is neither an international standard (IFRS, IAS) nor an interpretation (IFRIC, SIC).
The Conceptual Framework does not establish specific rules and regulations for measuring or disclosing information in financial statements. Moreover, none of the provisions of the Conceptual Framework takes precedence over the provisions of specific IFRSs. This means that in the event of a conflict between the requirements of a particular standard and the Conceptual Framework, the rules of a particular IFRS should be followed.
Nevertheless, the Conceptual Framework is one of the fundamental documents in the IFRS system, they establish the principles that underlie the preparation and presentation of financial statements in accordance with international standards.
The purpose of the Conceptual Framework is to:
- assist the IASB in developing future standards and revising existing IFRSs;
- assist the IASB in further harmonizing regulations, accounting standards and procedures relating to the presentation of financial statements;
- assist national financial reporting standards bodies in the development of national standards;
- assist preparers of financial statements in applying IFRS and addressing issues that are not already covered by a particular IFRS;
- assist auditors in forming an opinion on the compliance of financial statements with the requirements of IFRS;
- assist users of financial statements in interpreting the information contained in the statements;
- provide information on the IASB's approach to writing International Standards.
The Conceptual Framework addresses the following questions:
- purpose of financial reporting;
- qualitative characteristics of useful financial information;
- definitions, principles of recognition and approaches to the assessment of the elements from which financial statements are prepared;
- the concept of capital and maintaining the value of capital.
According to its structure, the Conceptual Framework is divided into 3 chapters:
Chapter | Issues to consider (sub-issues) |
---|---|
1. Purpose of general purpose financial reporting | Purpose, utility and limitations of general purpose financial reporting: — Information about the reporting entity's economic resources, claims on the entity, and changes in resources and claims; — economic resources and requirements; — changes in economic resources and requirements; — financial results recorded on an accrual basis; — financial results represented by cash flows for the past period; — changes in economic resources and requirements, not due to financial results |
3. Qualitative characteristics of useful financial information | Qualitative characteristics of useful financial information: - fundamental qualitative characteristics (relevance, materiality, truthful presentation); — application of fundamental qualitative characteristics; - qualitative characteristics that increase the usefulness of information (comparability, verifiability, timeliness, understandability); - the use of qualitative characteristics that increase the usefulness of information. Cost constraint on providing useful financial information |
4. Concept (as amended in 1989): remaining text | Underlying assumption (going concern) Elements of financial reporting: - financial position; — assets; — obligations; - equity; — performance results; — income; - expenses; — capital maintenance adjustments Recognition of elements of financial statements: — the likelihood of future economic benefits; — the reliability of the estimate; — recognition of assets; — recognition of obligations; — recognition of income; - recognition of expenses Evaluation of elements of financial statements Concepts of capital and capital maintenance: — concepts of capital; — the concept of maintaining the value of capital and the definition of profit |
1. International financial reporting standards: essence and meaning
2. International financial reporting standards: structure, hierarchy, content, application procedure
1. International financial reporting standards: essence and meaning
International Financial Reporting Standards(IFRS) are a system of generally accepted requirements, principles, rules and procedures that define a common approach to the preparation of financial statements that are useful to a wide range of interested users, and establish uniform requirements for the recognition, evaluation and disclosure of financial and business transactions.
Historically, each country has created its own accounting and reporting standards that meet, first of all, the requirements that its main users put forward for reporting.
Development of international trade, the emergence of multi-national companies, globalization of the capital market, the globalization of economic processes and information technology has caused the need to harmonize the financial statements of companies from different countries. This was due to the need to obtain and provide transparent, useful, informative, comparable, homogeneous financial information that is understandable to a wide range of interested users. It was for this purpose that it was decided to develop international financial accounting and reporting standards, which were supposed to provide a unified methodological framework and establish the basic accounting principles in accordance with which enterprises could keep financial records.
To date internationally recognized are financial statements prepared either under IFRS or US GAAP, since only statements prepared in accordance with these standards are recognized by most of the world's stock exchanges: US GAAP for American, IFRS for non-US. In this regard, depending on which exchange the company wants to enter the quotation list of, the appropriate accounting model is selected.
Development and use of IAS and IFRS in practice:
Allow to provide a unified approach to the formation of high-quality, transparent, comparable and reliable reporting in different countries;
Help investors and shareholders from different countries to better analyze the statements of potential recipients of investments (again, from different countries), prepared according to uniform principles, and therefore comparable;
They allow firms entering stock markets in different countries to prepare not several sets of financial statements (separately for each national exchange), but its single set for all exchanges, i.e. reduce the cost of attracting capital ;
Improve the overall culture of management within transnational corporations, improve their internal control system and audit .
2. International financial reporting standards: structure, hierarchy, content, application procedure
IFRS are a set of interrelated documents that include:
Preface to IFRS provisions;
Conceptual Framework or Principles for the preparation and presentation of financial statements;
Actually standards;
Clarifications to standards or interpretations.
All of them form a single system and cannot be used separately, however, each document as an element of the system has a specific purpose.
The Preface briefly outlines the objectives and procedures of the IFRS Council (Committee) and explains the procedure for the development and application of IFRS.
Conceptual foundations define the procedure for preparing and presenting financial statements for external users. It discusses issues such as the objectives of financial reporting, the underlying assumptions and qualitative characteristics that determine the usefulness of reporting information, provides definitions, the recognition and measurement of elements of financial statements. By themselves, they are not standards. The Conceptual Framework serves as a basis for developing the provisions of the standards, determines the approach to the preparation and presentation of financial statements and determines the possibility of applying professional judgment in solving various kinds of issues.
Actually international financial reporting standards are provisions adopted in the public interest on the procedure for preparing and presenting financial statements for individual sections of accounting.
Explanations to IFRS give unambiguous interpretation of unclear provisions of the standards and ensure their uniform application.
Questions for clarification are usually those related to:
Either using existing standards that have a practical focus and are of greatest interest to users,
Or emerging as the development of economic relations.
The international reporting standard and mandatory annexes to it have the highest priority.
IFRS may be accompanied by annexes that are not part of the standard:
Basis for conclusions;
Illustrative examples;
Correspondence tables (between new and old editions of the standard);
Guidelines for the implementation of the standard.
Finally, IFRS is based on the Principles for the preparation and presentation of financial statements in accordance with IFRS, which are not a standard and are not formally included in hierarchy IFRS.
A key aspect in the development of new standards, interpretations and applications is their compliance with these Principles.
Each standard focuses on a specific topic and has the following structure:
Purpose - reveals the problems of accounting, as well as the purpose of publishing this standard;
Scope of use - defines the boundaries of the standard, indicates the conditions under which it is not valid. It may also contain information about the termination of previously published standards in connection with the release of new ones;
Definition - reveals the content of the main terms found in the text of the standard;
Description of the entity - is the largest part, most often consists of several sections, which outline the basic principles of problem solving;
Disclosure of information is a mandatory part of the standard, containing information that must be disclosed in the financial statements, notes to them, and accounting policies;
Date of entry into force - the date of entry into force of this standard is indicated;
Additions - are an optional part, which provides detailed explanations for individual paragraphs of the standard.
Each standard contains the following information:
Accounting object - a definition of the accounting object and the main concepts associated with this object is provided;
Recognition of the object of accounting - the criteria for attributing the objects of accounting to different reporting elements are given;
Display in financial statements - disclosure of information about accounting objects in various forms of financial statements.
In practice, the following cases of application of IFRS in the conditions of the current level of development and harmonization of accounting and reporting are distinguished:
Use of IFRS along with national standards;
Adaptation of national standards to IFRS;
Application of IFRS as national standards.
Topic 8. International Financial Reporting Standards Board: structure, work procedure
1. International Accounting Standards Board: general information, goals and objectives
2. Structure and procedure for appointing members of the International Accounting Standards Board
3. The procedure for the development and adoption of international financial reporting standards
1. International Accounting Standards Board: general information, goals and objectives
In order to create and improvement of uniform unified financial reporting standards for all countries of the world On June 29, 1973, as a result of an international agreement, an independent non-governmental organization was formed with headquarters in London - the Committee on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) ( International Accounting Standards Committee, IASC). The Committee included representatives of 10 major world powers: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Holland, Great Britain, Ireland and the USA.
In 2001, the Committee was reorganized into the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
Committee or IASB (IASB) is an independent, non-governmental professional organization whose members are accounting (audit) organizations from different countries.
The purpose of the IASB is to:
1. development in the public interest of a single set of high-quality, understandable (accessible to understand) and applicable in practice global accounting standards, providing for the formation of high-quality, transparent and comparable information in financial statements in order to assist participants in global capital markets and others users of information in making economic decisions;
2. implementation, wide dissemination of standards, control over their observance and ensuring their uniform interpretation;
3. active work with the bodies that establish national standards to achieve convergence of these standards with IFRS in the interests of high-quality accounting solutions.
Until 2000, the IASB set the task harmonization of national accounting standards. This process was the development of high-quality solutions to accounting problems by the IASB, which then had to be used as the basis for the unification of national standards.
New Bylaws Process convergence involves the development of IASB together with national regulatory authorities of solutions to accounting problems that provide the most efficient and high-quality preparation and presentation of information in financial statements.
All over the world, companies (enterprises) prepare and present financial statements. Social, economic and legal conditions, national traditions of accounting, orientation of national standards to different users of financial statements in different countries have led to the fact that seemingly identical reporting forms differ in the method of formation and content of economic indicators.
In the context of the integration of the national economies of countries, the creation of joint ventures, the penetration of capital abroad, there is an objective need to level these differences by converging accounting rules and procedures related to the preparation and presentation of financial statements.
International Accounting Standards is a system of interrelated documents that regulate the principles, methods and categories of accounting.
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) - this is a set of rules, methods, terms and procedures of accounting, which are advisory in nature.
The purpose of financial reporting is to provide the necessary useful information to all potential users interested in obtaining information about the financial position, the results of the economic activity of the company or a consolidated group of companies, the effectiveness of management and the degree of responsibility of managers for the assigned work.
When developing accounting standards, the experience of different countries was generalized. IFRS are distinguished by a variety of approaches to solving accounting problems (for example, the ability to use several methods for calculating depreciation of fixed assets, several methods for accounting for inventories, several options for evaluating financial investments). They are constantly refined and changed, new ones are accepted.
The principles on which IFRS are based are:
- reliability - economic information should be reliably and adequately reflected in accounting;
- nominal valuation - all transactions are accounted for in accounting in monetary valuation "at face value" of the relevant currencies with recalculation, if necessary, at the officially established rate;
- caution - in accounting, forecasts are approached with great care, since real, reliable costs are taken into account;
- completeness in accounting or lack of compensation - ongoing transactions should be reflected completely in the entire set of data without any compensation;
- delimitation of reporting periods - costs and revenues are strictly delimited by the periods to which they relate;
- constancy of accounting methods - the methods used in accounting should be constant and not change arbitrarily;
- continuity - accounting is focused on the fact that the enterprise will operate continuously or for a sufficiently long period;
- double entry - the use of a double entry system in accounting (simultaneously for debit and credit of offsetting accounts);
- responsibility - each performer in accounting maintains his own area of work, for which he bears full responsibility;
- control.
IFRS is developed by the International Financial Reporting Standards Board. The IASB was established in 1973 by professional accountancy bodies from nine countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland). Initially, the committee consisted of seven highly qualified specialists who laid the foundation for the development of accounting standards. The first experiments showed the expediency of unifying accounting on an international scale.
Now the Council includes more than 100 members of professional accounting organizations - members of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). The IASB is an independent private sector body whose purpose is to unify the accounting principles used by companies to prepare financial statements around the world.
To date, more than 40 accounting standards have been developed relating to various aspects of accounting.
The objectives of the IASB are:
- – developing and publishing (in accordance with the public interest) IFRS to be followed in the presentation of financial statements, and assisting in their widespread adoption and compliance;
- – work to improve and harmonize accounting rules, standards and procedures related to the presentation of financial statements.
The IASB operates with financial support from professional accountants and other bodies on its Board, the IFAC, and contributions from companies, financial institutions, accounting firms and others. In addition, the IASB earns income from the sale of its publications.
IFRS are used differently in different countries, namely:
- – as national standards (Kuwait, Latvia, Malta, Pakistan, Croatia);
- - as national standards, but with the condition that for issues not covered in international standards, national standards are developed (Malaysia, Papua New Guinea);
- - as national standards, however, in some cases, their modification is possible in accordance with national characteristics (Albania, Bangladesh, Barbados, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Colombia, Poland, Sudan, Thailand, Uruguay, Jamaica);
- – national standards based on IFRS with their additional explanations (China, Iran, Slovenia, Tunisia, Philippines);
- – national standards based on IFRS, however, some standards may be more detailed than IFRS (Brazil, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Mauritania, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Turkey, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, SOUTH AFRICA);
- - national standards based on IFRS, except that each national standard includes a provision in which the national standard is compared with IFRS (Australia, Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, Yugoslavia).
Currently, in Russia, national standards are being developed taking into account the requirements of IFRS. However, differences between them still exist, in particular:
- - According to IFRS, the financial year may not coincide with the calendar year. Moreover, the US taxation system allows firms to set their own financial year dates. In Russian practice, such approaches are excluded. The financial year is set to coincide with the calendar year;
- - in the Russian accounting system, the national currency is used - the ruble;
- - reporting of a multinational company is prepared in the currency of the country where their headquarters is located, but most often - in US dollars, and subsidiaries of these companies - in the national currency of the host country;
- - in the plan of accounts of the Anglo-American model, there is no numbering of accounts, the accounts follow the degree of liquidity - from the most liquid types of property and liabilities to the least liquid ones. In the Russian Chart of Accounts, the sequence is reversed. Similarly, the placement of balance sheet items;
- - there are differences in the spelling of numbers, due to national traditions. So, in Anglo-American reporting, a comma separates the digits of integers, and a dot separates the fractional part from the integer. For example, in IFRS reporting, a number is indicated in the form of 24,376.85, and in Russian - 24,376.85;
- - in the Russian accounting system (unlike the South American model) there is no procedure that allows you to adjust all balance sheet items for the inflation index. This reduces the reliability of financial statements in the process of comparing them for different periods;
- - according to IFRS, the correction of errors is allowed only by the "black reversal" method, i.e. the previous erroneous entry is corrected only upwards. In Russian practice, the use of the "red reversal" method is allowed.
The development of foreign economic relations of states, a broad investment policy urgently require interpenetration, interconnection, which leads to the mutual enrichment of national and international standards. On the basis of national standards, each organization develops its own strategy for economic activity in a particular market for products, works and services.
The new Accounting Law No. 402-FZ assumes that the Accounting Regulations will be replaced by innovative "accounting standards". A certain part of the new law is devoted to the procedure for their development and approval. They will be divided into federal and sectoral ones, both of which are obligatory and must correspond to the "level of development of science and practice." They will be based on international accounting standards.
Federal standards, regardless of the type of economic activity, establish:
- 1) definitions and features of accounting objects, the procedure for their classification, the conditions for their acceptance for accounting and writing them off in accounting;
- 2) acceptable methods of monetary measurement of accounting objects;
- 3) the procedure for recalculating the cost of accounting items, expressed in foreign currency, into the currency of the Russian Federation for accounting purposes;
- 4) requirements for accounting policies, including the determination of the conditions for its change, inventory of assets and liabilities, accounting documents and accounting workflow, including types of electronic signatures used to sign accounting documents;
- 5) the chart of accounts for accounting and the procedure for its application, with the exception of the chart of accounts for credit institutions and the procedure for its application;
- 6) the composition, content and procedure for the formation of information disclosed in the accounting (financial) statements, including sample forms of accounting (financial) statements, as well as the composition of the appendices to the balance sheet and the income statement and the composition of the annexes to the balance sheet and the report on intended use of funds;
- 7) the conditions under which the accounting (financial) statements will give a reliable idea of the financial position of the economic entity as of the reporting date, the financial result of its activities and the cash flow for the reporting period;
- 8) the composition of the last and first accounting (financial) statements during the reorganization of a legal entity, the procedure for its preparation and the monetary measurement of objects in it;
- 9) the composition of the latest accounting (financial) statements upon liquidation of a legal entity, the procedure for its preparation and the monetary measurement of objects in it;
- 10) simplified methods of accounting, including simplified accounting (financial) reporting, for small businesses.
Federal standards may establish special accounting requirements (including accounting policy, accounting chart of accounts and the procedure for its application) of organizations in the public sector, as well as accounting requirements for certain types of economic activity.
Industry standards establish the features of the application of federal standards in certain types of economic activity.
The chart of accounts for credit institutions and the procedure for its application are approved by a regulatory legal act of the Bank of Russia.
Recommendations in the field of accounting are adopted in order to correctly apply federal and industry standards, reduce the cost of organizing accounting, as well as disseminate best practices in organizing and maintaining accounting, the results of research and development in the field of accounting.
The standards of an economic entity are designed to streamline the organization and maintain its accounting records. The necessity and procedure for developing, approving, changing and canceling the standards of an economic entity are established by this entity independently. They are applied equally and equally by all divisions of an economic entity, including its branches and representative offices, regardless of their location.
An economic entity that has subsidiaries is entitled to develop and approve its own standards that are mandatory for use by such companies. The standards of the specified subject, obligatory for application by the parent company and its subsidiaries, should not create obstacles for such companies to carry out their activities.
Federal and industry standards owe no federal accounting law. Industry standards must not conflict with federal standards. Recommendations in the field of accounting, as well as the standards of an economic entity, should not contradict federal and industry standards.
The practical implementation of the above provisions of the Law on Accounting No. 402-FZ will make it possible to bring the Russian accounting practice even closer to the established international accounting practice.