Accounting For Agricultural Products: US Versus IFRS GAAP

Abstract

Currently there is a mix of accounting guidance for agriculture producers in the US that is both GAAP including Accounting Statement Codification 905 and non-GAAP financial guidelines. Should the US adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), this guidance would be replaced with International Accounting Standard (IAS) 41 – Agriculture.

This study identifies systematic differences between the US and International accounting and reporting for agricultural assets and products. The study also finds that international and US agricultural accounting recognition and reporting guidance result in dissimilar reporting due to guidance interpretation. Valuation variances and definition differences including the requirement to change the agricultural asset recognition method from historical cost to fair value continue to be the basis of major reporting differences. Current US guidance on recognizing and reporting agricultural assets is more conservative than the international guidance. Overall, the US agricultural recognition and reporting guidance contains less information and is therefore less beneficial to financial statement users.