KASB and AASB publish final study on the influence of cultural background and translation on the interpretation of IFRSs
26 Jul 2016
In December 2015, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and the Korea Accounting Standards Board (KASB) reported on a joint research project on IFRS implementation at the ASAF meeting that month. The final report on the project that explored how cultural background and translation affect the interpretation of the terms that are used in IFRS is now available.
The findings in the final report are consistent with those detailed in December 2015: differences in cultures and languages can lead to different interpretations of terms used in IFRSs - a fact that is not helped by the circumstance that the IASB itself uses a variety of terms for similar fact patterns and not even consistenly across standards. Accordingly, the report emphasises that it will be useful for the IASB to consider narrowing down the number of terms, to give considerable attention to how terms might be interpreted and translated in different jurisdictions when developing a standard, to consider developing principles and guidance that could be applied consistently across the standards, and to use standard-setting outreach and consultative processes to obtain input on translation and interpretation issues in different jurisdictions.
The final report, which forms KASB Research Report No.39 and AASB Research Report No.2, can be accessed through the press release on the KASB website.
