[Cruzer]

Really don’t understand why IFRS is emphasized so much in studying for FAR section. Seriously, how many people (or what %) of people really need to know the difference of U.S. GAAP and IFRS to treat different transactions for accounting purposes for their every day job?

[A]

I worked on a few foreign partnerships in my very first job in public, right out of school. We had to issue IFRS statements along with GAAP statements.

B - 77 (2.27.16)
A - 81 (4.18.16)
R -
F -

Roger Review + Ninja MCQs

[Anthony]

Same reason why is a good chunk of the exam on Gov't and NFP even though not many work in that sector..it's because they can.

[A]

Every state, city, county government, public university, public hospital, and school district, employs accountants, right? There are *tens of thousands* of govt accounting jobs out there. Think of the number of NFPs, too. HSUS, United Way, Salvation Army, Susan Komen Foundation…the list is HUGE! Don't lose sight of that just because this board tends to focus on public accounting.

B - 77 (2.27.16)
A - 81 (4.18.16)
R -
F -

Roger Review + Ninja MCQs

[Anonymous]

Who knows, the US may go IFRS sometime. *Highly* unlikely, but never say never. Off the top of my head, I know only about six IFRS differences (no LIFO, lower of cost or NRV, can reverse losses on previously written-down assets, a couple cash flow statement differences, no completed contract method allowed for construction, and fair-value valuation of securities on BS is allowed….hey that's six! And to think I flunked FAR!)

I didn't spend time memorizing IFRS differences specifically. Most of them are the same for GAAP and IFRS; when in doubt while taking the test, just pick the “same as GAAP” choice. A lot of people do that.

[Anonymous]

Hi Cruzer!
Well, officially FASB said it's not going to substitute US GAAP with IFRS.
However IFRS issuers are allowed in US without mandatory reconciliation.
And if you look at US GAAP changes over the last years, most of them are towards IFRSs (lower of cost or market for FIFO/average, DTA/DTO classification etc)

[Track55]

It isn't even that much. You only have to memorize it for 4 hours then you go home.

AUD - 74, 99 !!
REG - 74, 92
BEC - 83
FAR - 73, 86

Studying for Ethics exam

California candidate
Business and Industry

[Christopher]

Because it's increasingly relevant.

[Cruzer]

Just found the chart in the back of the Becker book of the differences of IFRS vs GAAP and found it quite helpful. I was curious to know if people have studied it religiously or is Bob's PLUS videos and Jeff's audio enough for this section of FAR? I just completed the one and only SIM of IRFS in NINJA on a IFRS business acquisition and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought. I made my own excel spreadsheet typing out how a company would report under IFRS when acquiring a US based company and this helped organize the problem.

[Anonymous]

Agreed with the person above who said “Because they can.”

Most of the CPA exam is not real-world, nor is it a very accurate test of competency. If I was chair of the exam committee at the AICPA, a score of 50 on the CPA exam for each section would be a passing score. Or, no numerical scores released, just “PASS” or “NO PASS”. You just have to *have a clue* on all these topics. If you have a clue, you're competent, and you can pick up what you don't know while you're doing your job.

By including so much on IFRS, Govt, NPO, and other seldom-encountered topics that are harder to memorize, it ends up being more of a memory/retention test. I have never encountered anything related to IFRS in any of my jobs and I think a lot of us haven't either. Why? Because the US is never going to go IFRS and if you do have to work with audited financials of foreign companies, you can Google the differences between GAAP and IFRS and check those out. Off the top of my head, I know like six differences between GAAP and IFRS. The rest, I'd have to look up. I dare say that people who passed FAR with scores in the 90s would too.

Long answer to your short question.

[Author]

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