Looks like the long-awaited roadmap is due closer to the end of September, according to an interview with SEC Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt by Liz Gold in WebCPA, the online edition of Accounting Today.
In the interview, Hewitt talks about releasing the roadmap “sometime before Sept. 21.” He also lays out a set of dates that are between 2011 and 2014 for the mandatory conversion and makes the point that by 2011, he expects about 150 countries to be using IFRS. (Canada and several others are already in the conversion process.) He also laid out the “issues” that the SEC was watching before setting the date, including the following:
- Are the universities in the U.S. teaching IFRS?
- Is it on the CPA exam? (The AICPA issues an exposure draft for comments by July 31, 2008 proposing IFRS be added to the exam.)
- Is the IASB independently and adequately funded?
- Does the IASB have sufficient oversight as we do in the U.S.? (The U.S. has the SEC and the PCAOB.)
The SEC just announced a roundtable on Monday, Aug. 4 beginning at 1 p.m.
I can tell you that we are hearing a lot of interest from our members in both the corporate sector and our public accounting firms, and we are beginning to gather resources for our members to be ready to embrace this coming change. We have been covering this in our professional issues updates (four hours of free CPE) extensively and our members want to be prepared. Interestingly, at a meeting of our Accounting Education Committee, our educators have scheduled a keynote on IFRS at their upcoming conference in January 2009.
MACPA IFRS resources
Visit our IFRS resource center.
Listen to some of our latest podcasts:
We have two upcoming public seminars:
- Are You Ready for IFRS? Nov. 11, 2008
- International vs. U.S. Accounting: What in the World is the Difference? Dec. 15, 2008
We have just added several new instructors, including an internationally acclaimed IFRS expert, all of whom are available for consulting and company/firm specific training. See our courses here and contact our Customized Training manager, Pam Devine, for more information at pam@macpa.org.