The impact of the International Accounting Standards/ International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS) in determining the goodwill of companies in the European Union (EU)

The aim of this paper is to delineate and analyse the notion of goodwill both from the standpoint of the accounting theory and of the economic practice (referring to the valuation and presentation of this asset in the balance sheet) and, to a smaller extent, from a legal perspective. As an economic value, goodwill plays a significant role when determining the value of a company and thus goodwill has become a highly debated topic in the past few years, one that the economic community has tried to delineate in terms of contents and structure, separately from other intangible assets. There are companies on the market that have the same factors of production but are evaluated and considered at different values, because of the very influence of these intangible values. The present paper focuses on this specific context and identifies the changes affecting goodwill as a consequence of the various accounting treatments and particularly the effects of the mandatory observance of the International Financial Reporting Standards IAS/IFRS by all companies quoted on the EU market. Additionally, we will focus on the extent to which the outcome of such valuations can have positive or negative effects on other categories of assets and liabilities and/or on the net worth of the company, on the recorded performance or on its image and notoriety.   Key words: Goodwill, assets and resources, accounting methods, InternationalAccounting Standards/ International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS).