Reasons for International Differences of Financial Reporting Systems

Abstract

The paper starts with a description of the basic facts about accounting, accounting system and accounting reporting with emphasis on financial reporting, which is founded on several general philosophical presuppositions. Later the reviews of the different authors opinions on reasons for causes of international differences in financial reporting systems and their classifications are stated. There is still a strong case for the distinction of the Anglo-American and Continental-European group of financial reporting systems. The most typical of the Anglo-American group is probably the U.S. financial reporting system and the most typical of the Continental-European is probably the German financial reporting system, which are thus besides IFRS with its above national characteristics and SAS presented in greater detail. SAS are on a large scale harmonized with IFRS and cover besides the field of financial reporting also the field of internal reporting. We can expect IFRS to have even greater international role, their even further harmonization with U.S. GAAP with SAS again inevitably following the IFRS path.