حسابداری برای کمک های دولتی
Abstract
1- Introduction
2- The technical problem and the responses of regulators
3- Empirical research on IFRS options
4- Outline of empirical analysis, and development of hypotheses
5- Sample and data for empirical analyses
6- Policy choice
7- Disclosure quality
8- The economic importance of asset grants
9- Summary and conclusions
Appendix A. Disclosure quality scoring
Appendix B. Examples of ‘best practice’ disclosure
References
Abstract
This paper provides evidence on several matters relating to accounting for government grants under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Focusing on grants related to assets, we trace the development of International Accounting Standard (IAS) 20, outline some of the problems of current accounting practice, and suggest why these have not been addressed by the standard-setter. Then, by hand-collecting data relating to 559 firms from 15 countries, we empirically analyze several issues. We show that asset grants are economically important for some firms and that the frequency of grants is significantly different across the countries. For the nonfinancial firms in our sample, we identify the grant-related accounting policy choice: a firm can either show the grant as deferred income or net it against the asset. The options are roughly equally popular overall but the firm’s country of domicile is strongly associated with the choice. Further, as a key element of disclosure quality for this topic, we investigate whether or not the balance sheet-related numbers relating to grants are disclosed, finding that many firms do not disclose them. Disclosure quality is better for firms which use the ‘deferred income’ option, and it is also better in countries where a higher proportion of firms has received government grants. International differences and poor disclosure are detrimental to international comparisons, so we conclude that the policy choice should be removed from the accounting standard.
Introduction
Accounting for government grants has become a neglected area of standard-setting and it is little researched. Several standards of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) deal with the issue (e.g. separately for listed firms and for unlisted firms), but they have quite different requirements, some involving choice by preparers. Further, the issue is important in the context of the political pressure on standard-setters to increase transparency about financial flows between firms and governments (e.g. OECD, 2015). However, there is no coverage of this area (which could be called ‘non-reciprocal transfers’) in the conceptual framework of the IASB (2010a) which is designed to guide standard-setting. Further, there are no proposals to undertake research or to amend the framework or standards in the area. Unusually for any accounting topic, there are no requirements in US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Although the IASB has not resolved the issue, for reasons discussed in this paper, other influential parties have acknowledged its importance (EFRAG, 2016).1 This paper analyzes accounting for asset grants both conceptually and empirically.