Similarities and Differences
A comparison of IFRS and US GAAP

October 2007

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ IFRS and corporate governance publications and tools 2007
IFRS technical publications
IFRS Manual of Accounting 2008 Provides expert practical guidance on how groups should prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS. Comprehensive publication including hundreds of worked examples, extracts from company reports and model financial statements.
IFRS News Monthly newsletter focusing on the business implications of the IASB's proposals and new standards.

Acquisitions – Accounting and transparency under IFRS 3 Assesses the impact of the standard, highlighting the key issues for management and raising
Many commentators have called for convergence to simplify financial reporting and reduce the compliance burden for listed companies, especially those with stock market listings in more than one jurisdiction and those who participate in cross-border, capitalmarket transactions. A major step in the movement to one set of global accounting standards is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2007 proposal to drop the requirement for a US GAAP reconciliation by foreign private issuers that prepare their primary financial statements under full IFRS. Another significant step is the 2007 SEC Concepts Release on allowing domestic US registrants to use IFRS as an alternative to US GAAP. These potential changes, if they come to fruition, will significantly alter the international landscape of accounting. US capital-market participants have already started to show a much greater interest in IFRS, realising that it may replace US GAAP as the accounting language underlying future financial reporting and capital-market activity. This will not happen immediately. In the meantime, we hope that you will find this publication useful in helping you identify the key differences between IFRS and US GAAP. It needs to be stressed that this slim book deals with the main differences only. Many hundreds of pages would be needed in order to be comprehensive, but that was