Graduation Year
2015
Date of Submission
11-2014
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics-Accounting
Reader 1
Marc Massoud
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2014 Hester Lam
Abstract
The United States has a long history of doing things differently than other countries. Its accounting standards are no different; to date, it continues to use its own Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and have yet to converge to the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as set by the International Accounting Standards Board. In 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") Chairman Christopher Cox published a press release in which the SEC published for public comment a roadmap towards convergence by 2014. However, in subsequent years, Memorandum of Understandings published by the IASB and the United States' Financial Accounting Standards Boards ("FASB") pushed back the date of implementation at each publication. As a result, the convergence efforts have been stalling greatly.
It is very unlikely that the U.S. will ever completely converge to IFRS as the financial costs and obstacles to convergence are not insignificant. Not only will the costs of implication be great, but also the costs of training and education of auditors and accountants. It is not feasible for the U.S. to converge with IFRS in the near future, as the benefits most countries obtain through convergence such as increased quality of financial statements will not be realized. As such, this paper seeks to prove why IFRS convergence will not be realized in the United States.
Recommended Citation
Lam, Hester, "Why does the U.S. Continue to Use GAAP and Will it Ever Converge to IFRS?" (2015). CMC Senior Theses. 1066.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1066
