European Accounting and Accounting Harmonization Hrudková Kateřina, Khudayarova Gulshod, Rašovská Aneta

Index Introduction European Accounting Accounting Harmonization International Financial Reporting Standard IFRS for SMEs 2005 important point for European and National Accounting System Conclusion Reference

Introduction On the European continent, there is a process of harmonization within the European Union (EU). The European Union includes countries with different social, economic and political environment, and has 25 different tax regimes. This is the reason why the financial reporting systems in the EU vary. Here, the harmonization has been perceived as part of the single European business environment in order to facilitate comparability of businesses operating in territories where there are unified accounting standards, to alleviate the situation of companies that are expanding their activities outside their home states and to enable an unified understanding and accounting processing of transactions and financial situation of businesses.

European Accounting Under the EU's legislation, all listed EU companies must prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with a single set of global standards - the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). European accounting consists of nationally based sets of rules and practices, subject to limited degree of Harmonization. Standards and directives contradicting – no more directives from EU support of standards Why enterprises within the EU should be afforded a simple principle of a level playing field?

Accounting Harmonization = is a process of increasing the compatibility of accounting practices by setting bounds to their degree of variation. companies want to operate in a business environment in which they can trade, raise capital, list their securities and attract investors in different countries. Investors want to seek new investment opportunities throughout the world. will assist companies and investors and, consequently, the efficient operation of capital markets.

Accounting Harmonization Obstacles- Importance of law, Flexibility, Providers finance, Taxation Don’t confuse Harmonization with Standardization! - way to stitch varying practices together X adopting a uniform approach EU has been major player in the harmonization of accounting

International Financial Report Standard is a set of accounting standards developed by an independent, not-for-profit organization called the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) IFRS is sometimes confused with IAS (International Accounting Standards), which are older standards that IFRS has replaced. 43 jurisdictions in Europe require IFRS Standards to be applied by all or most of their domestic publicly accountable entities. Switzerland permits the use of IFRS Standards. Australia has harmonised and working towards standardization. Interestingly, China and Russia has greater commitment towards IDRS than the USA. (2006)

IFRS for SMEs IFRS Standards are required for domestic public companies = All domestic companies whose securities trade in a public market are required to use IFRS Standards as adopted by the EU in their consolidated financial statements. IFRS Standards are required or permitted for listings by foreign companies = Foreign companies whose debt or equity securities trade in a public market in the jurisdiction are required to use IFRS Standards as adopted by the EU in their consolidated financial statements.

2005 important point for European and National Accounting System In 2002 the European Union agreed that from 1 January 2005 International Accounting Standards / IFRS (abbreviation for International Financial Reporting Standard : one of the standards created by the International Accounting Standards Board, which explains how company accounts must be recorded or shown)

Conclusion European accounting is in process of Harmonization which will improve understanding accounting information domestic and international companies. Harmonization provides a level of playing ground where no county is advantaged or disadvantaged by accounting system. IFRS was accepted and used in 2005 by European Union ever since. Harmonization is complicated by obstacles coming from within the countries in EU. Every country over the world should accept same set of accounting standards, audit rules, disclosures and capital market standard to make our life easier.

Reference https://web.archive.org/web/20141106173349/http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/account ing/legal_framework/ias_regulation/index_en.htm https://www.ifrs.org/use-around-the-world/use-of-ifrs-standards-by-jurisdiction/european- union/ https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/IFRS-International-Financial-Reporting-Standards http://www.casplus.com/pubs/files/pocket2019.pdf https://cdcsynectics.com/2017/05/04/to-standardize-or- harmonize/?fbclid=IwAR0bNeU7i5Arl5YdJPU3XF2etY5ubD_tm77BjFZe8- fspY_iSMxpvhANls8 https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/company-reporting-and- auditing/company-reporting/financial-reporting_en https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/finance-funding/accounting/accounting-rules- standards/index_en.htm

Thank you for your Attention