Analysis of Canadian-US GAAP differences
04 Apr 2006
The Canadian Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) has prepared an analysis of reported Canadian/US GAAP differences based on a survey of 150 public Canadian companies for fiscal years ending in 2004. All the companies have listings on major US stock exchanges or issue debt securities in the US.
The AcSB has recently adopted a new Strategic Plan that calls for the adoption of International Accounting Standards Board standards for publicly accountable enterprises. This will result in some reorientation of AcSB standard-setting activities. The AcSB will work to eliminate remaining significant differences with US GAAP where their elimination is consistent with the IASB convergence objective. The AcSB intends to avoid creating new differences with US GAAP during the transition period whenever possible. However, some new differences with US GAAP may be unavoidable as a result of the AcSB's new strategy, but such differences should generally be temporary because the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and IASB are working together toward convergence of their standards. |