会计准则的共同框架外文翻译.docx

1、会计准则的共同框架外文翻译外文翻译原文：A Common Framework for Accounting StandardsIn September 2010,the U.S.Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) completed the first phase of a project that will influence global standards setting for many years to come.Spec

2、ifically,the Boards converged key portions of their conceptual frameworks.This months column will explain what the Boards have done and the significance of their accomplishment.Whats a Conceptual Framework?A conceptual framework for a set of accounting standards is an explicit declaration of the fun

3、damental concepts on which the set of standards is based.The concepts addressed by conceptual frameworks tend to be general in nature,broad in scope,and stable over time.For example,a conceptual framework typically will identify the kinds of financial statements that reporting entities should prepar

4、e (balance sheet,income statement,etc.) and define the basic elements of those financial statements (assets,liabilities,income, expenses,etc.). Having a conceptual framework eliminates the need for a standards setter,such as the FASB or the IASB,to reestablish core concepts each time it develops or

5、updates a standard.Additionally,by consistently referring to a stable conceptual framework,a standards setter is more likely to promulgate standards that are consistent with each other as well as with significant assumptions and constraints. The conceptual framework of U.S.Generally Accepted Account

6、ing Principles (GAAP) is documented in a series of Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFACs) issued by the FASB.The IASB has documented the conceptual framework of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in its Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statemen

7、ts.Though similar in some respects,the two frameworks have always been separate and distinct from each otheruntil recently.As part of their efforts to converge the specific standards that comprise U.S.GAAP and IFRS,the Boards have begun to converge their conceptual frameworks as well.The FASB-IASB C

8、onceptual Framework ProjectIn October 2004,the FASB and the IASB added a joint conceptual framework project to their agendas.The objective of the project is “to develop an improved common conceptual framework that provides a sound accounting standards.”In other words,the Boards have been working tog

9、ether to replace their separate frameworks with a single framework on which both future U.S.GAAP and future IFRS will be based.Each Board is committed to making the single framework better than either ones existing framework. The joint conceptual framework project consists of eight phases,designated

10、 “A”through “H”:A. Objective and qualitative characteristicsB. Elements and recognitionC. MeasurementD. Reporting entityE. Presentation and disclosure, including financial reporting boundariesF. Framework purpose and status in GAAP hierarchyG. Applicability to the not-for-profit sectorH. Remaining i

11、ssuesIn July 2006,the FASB and the IASB issued a Preliminary Views (PV) document for Phase A that described the Boardstentative thoughts on the overall objective of financial reporting and on the necessary and desirable qualitative characteristics of reported financial information.After further deli

12、berations,the Boards issued an Exposure Draft (ED) for Phase A in May 2008 that proposed the first two chapters of a common conceptual framework.Final versions of those two chapters were subsequently issued by the Boards on September 28,2010. The FASB issued the two chapters together as SFAC No.8,“C

13、onceptual Framework for Financial ReportingChapter 1,The Objective of General Purpose Financial Reporting,and Chapter 3,Qualitative Characteristics of Useful Financial Information(a replacement of FASB Concepts Statements No.1 and No.2).”(SFAC No.1 was “Objectives of Financial Reporting by Business

14、Enterprises,”and SFAC No.2 was “Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information.”)The Board had previously issued only seven SFACs in its 37-year historynone of them in the past 10 years.The infrequency of SFAC issuance reflects the high degree of stability in the FASBs conceptual framework ov

15、er time.But change happens,and the less frequently it happens,the more significant it is when it does happen. For its part,the IASB incorporated the two chapters into a revised version of its framework that it published as The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting 2010.Previously,the IASB had

16、nt made a substantive revision to its framework since 2001. Again,that fact that conceptual frameworks dont change frequently makes the recent changes by the FASB and the IASB all the more notable.The Objective of General Purpose Financial ReportingChapter 1 of the Boardscommon conceptual framework focuses on the overall objective of financial reporting.As stated in SFAC No.8,“The objective of general purpose financial reporting is to provide fi