Whats The Rush? IFRS, The SEC, And The Pressure On Accounting Instructors To Teach Still More Financial Reporting Rules

Abstract

This paper addresses the problems facing accounting instructors in the U.S. as they struggle with pressure to incorporate IFRS into an already crowded financial accounting curriculum. To help instructors better understand the advantages and disadvantages of financial reporting under IFRS, we provide a critical analysis of arguments that have been made for and against IFRS adoption. This analysis should aid instructors in their design of lectures and assignments related to IFRS. We also show that adoption still faces serious obstacles, including the use of U.S. GAAP in contracts and regulations, the prohibition against the use of LIFO, and the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for funding of a financial reporting standard-setter. We then provide support for an approach for incorporating IFRS in the financial accounting curriculum that places greater emphasis on teaching concepts than on teaching more rules. We conclude by presenting a model for a concepts course that would be taken by students as they begin the accounting major in their junior year.