IFRS adoption will need five years preparation time

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18 Oct, 2010

In a comment letter on the call for views on aspects of possible IFRS transition of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) supports the goal of a single set of high-quality, comprehensive accounting standards to be used by public companies in the preparation of transparent and comparable financial reports throughout the world and notes that the standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are best positioned to become those standards.

However, the AICPA warns that companies will need five years preparation time to adopt IFRS if the SEC requires two years of historical comparative financial statements. If only one year of comparative financial statements is required, a four-year transition period would be needed to adopt IFRS. The AICPA would support a decision by the SEC to require only one year of comparative financial statements.

Click for AICPA comment letter to the SEC (PDF 269k, link to AICPA website).

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