Strait Degree Of Internationalization Of Accounting Standards

Accounting information can measure operation results and financial condition of a company best. The factors of economy, politics, laws and society etc. have a great impact on the development of accounting in all countries and areas. With the progress of globalization and the development of international capital market, accounting, as the general business language in the whole world, becoming more and more internationalized is inevitable.The history for formulating accounting principle in the US is the longest, as well as the most costly. It boosts its GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Principle) complete and perfect, and the establishment procedure is fully disclosed, open and independent. But people begin to question the bases for formulating GAAP since the scandals of Enron and WorldCom came to light at the end of 2001 successively. The discussion by using what kind of approach to work out the GAAP, principles-based or rules-based, is also developing. The US GAAP represents principle-based approach while the IFRS (International Financial Report Standards) represents the other. The two-pronged situation is faced by all countries and areas, as the internationalization means close to US GAAP or IFRS. But it is out of question that more and more countries and areas choose IFRS as the terminal target, including China mainland and Taiwan province.China Financial Ministry takes a close look at the tendency of IFRS when formulating CAS (Chinese Accounting Standards) all along. "There is a clear momentum toward accepting the IFRS as the common financial reporting language throughout the world, and companies from more and more countries including China are benefiting from the trend," said David Tweedie, chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), when he paid a visit to Beijing in July 2007. And accounting principles of Taiwan was deeply effected by US GAAP at the beginning. As more and more countries and areas adopt IFRS, the formulation and modification of the principles of Taiwan take the direction to IFRS since 1999.The thesis mainly aims at the comparison of the cross-strait GAAP internationalized routes and also the internationalized extents. With a hope that it can bring further discussion in coordination and globalization of GAAP in academic circles cross-strait.