Differences Between GAAP and IFRS

Accountants are responsible for following standards, conventions, and rules in order to ensure ethical accounting in their day-to-day practices. However, the rules in the United States vary from those followed in other countries. The United States uses what is called U.S. GAAP. “GAAP” stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Most of the rest of the world uses what is called International Financial Reporting Standards known simply as “IFRS.” The United States is in the process of either converting or converging U.S. GAAP with IFRS. To complete this Discussion: 1. Using your preferred search engine (such as Google), enter one or more of the following keywords: o IFRS o U.S. GAAP conversion o U.S. GAAP convergence o U.S. GAAP v. IFRS 2. Using what you’ve learned in the interactive course content along with the results of your Internet keyword search, focus on and deeply explore the differences between GAAP and IFRS. Consider not only written articles, but also video lecture search results, which you can find by doing your keyword search on YouTube.com. Be sure to critically evaluate the sources that you encounter in your Internet search. Are they reliable? Are they current? By Day 5 of Week 2: Post a response of at least 1 page in which you discuss the differences between GAAP and IFRS. As you write your post, consider the following: o What are implications of the differences in these two different financial reporting systems? o What are two benefits and two challenges with each? Use MLA format of writing