IFRS in the U.S.: It May Come Sooner Than You Think: A Commentary

In April 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the Commission's plan to seek comments on its intension to allow foreign private issuers a choice between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Even more significant, the Commission announced that it may, at some point in the future, consider allowing a choice between U.S. GAAP and IFRS for U.S.-headquartered issuers. In this commentary, we pose questions/issues to be carefully considered within the context of making these decisions. These include, but are not limited to, a consideration of whether eliminating the reconciliation could stall convergence efforts and/or minimize the joint efforts of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to improve problem areas for current financial reporting. We encourage academics to draw upon their research and expertise and engage in the discussion and debate by providing relevant comment letters to the SEC.