Last Friday the SEC released its new roadmap for migrating U.S. companies from U.S. GAAP (Genreally Accepted Accounting Principles) to IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).  According to the article:

"...all publicly traded U.S. companies would be required to use IFRS within six years. However, at least 110 companies could use the international rules as early as next year, depending on their size and their industry. The SEC predicts that those companies would each incur about $32 million in additional costs in the 10-Ks they file in 2010."

For everyone else, the SEC estimates that U.S. companies will spend between 0.125 percent and 0.13 percent of their revenue on making the transition to international financial reporting standards from U.S. GAAP in the first year of filing.  This is just more evidence that the new revenue stream the accounting firms have been waiting for is here. Some of my former Big 4 colleagues (including a partner) have come out and told me as much.  The big difference though between SOX and IFRS is that once companies have made the transition, that's it.  In other words, unlike SOX, IFRS has an end date.

It should also be noted that this timeline could change once Barack Obama takes office in January.  SEC chairman Christopher Cox is a Republican, and he has indicated he will resign early next year. Comments to the roadmap are due in mid-February, so we'll have to wait and see what the final version will look like.

Recommend this article...

Comment

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.