engleski

Influence of accounting regulation harmonization on the financial reporting of selected EU countries

The second half of the 20th century was marked by globalization of economic activities while the recent trends are strongly affected by harmonization and standardization processes. In that sense, accounting regulation is one of the important parts of economy that has to be harmonized, as well. The development of multinational companies has had a significant impact on the internationalization in the accounting profession. Since financial statements serve as a form of communication between company and users of financial statements, it is obvious that differences in various national accounting standards on the global level can hinder understanding information presented in financial statements. The application of different non- complained accounting standards can cause a variety of problems such as: problems in preparing consolidated financial statements, difficulty in entering foreign capital markets, incomparable financial statements as well as the absence of high quality accounting information etc. These problems can be solved or minimized by harmonization processes of financial reporting standards on the global level. Several relevant global organizations have been contracted to encourage the harmonization and standardization of accounting standards in order to ensure comparable and transparent financial statements in the world. However, the process of harmonization is not a simple task. It is evident that there are many obstacles in the harmonization of financial reporting that are hard to overcome in a short term. An accounting system of a particular country has its specific features that can prove to be a “stumbling stone” in the harmonization process. Due to these the process of accounting harmonization has been lasting for a few decades. Until the obstacles have been overcome the harmonization process will be prolonged to the future. Since different accounting solutions create certain difficulties in international exchange of business information the primary goal of this paper is to research the basic features of financial reporting of selected EU countries (Germany, Great Britain, France, Slovenia, and Denmark). In addition, the paper is meant to summarize the results of influence of two most frequently applied accounting standards (International Financial Reporting Standards and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) on national accounting solutions.

harmonization; EU countries; financial reporting

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