Chapter 3

COMPARATIVE
ACCOUNTING

Six highly developed countries: French, Germany,

Japan, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United
States
Home to the vast majority of the worlds MNCs
Dominate the development of international
accounting
The founders of IASC, now IASB
Have well-established mechanisms for developing
accounting and auditing standards

Penyebab perbedaan akuntansi di

masing-masing negara:
Weaknesses and ineffectiveness of penalties for
noncompliance with official accounting
pronouncements
Voluntarily report more information than required
Allowance to depart from accounting standards (if
doing so will better represent a companys results
of operations and financial position)
Accounting standards apply only to individual
company financial statement (companies are free
to choose different accounting standards for their
consolidated financial statements)

Penetapan Standar Akuntansi

the process by which accounting standards are
formulated
Involves a combination of:
Private sector groups = sektor swasta (includes the
accounting profession, users, preparers of FS)
Public sector groups = sektor pemerintah (includes tax
authorities, ministries responsible for commercial law,
securities commissions)
Kedua sektor ini biasanya memberi pengaruh ke
penetapan standar akuntansi, mungkin ada salah satu
sektor yang pengaruhnya lebih kuat

Penetapan Standar Akuntansi di 6 negara

French
Conseil National de la Comptabilite, or CNC
(National Accounting Board)
Commission des Operations de Bourse (COB)
Ordre des Experts-Comptables Agrees (OECCA)
Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux
Comptes (CNCC)

Germany
German institute (GI) is mainly concerned with
setting auditing standard

Japan
Ministry of Finance (MOF) through its special
advisory body, the Business Accounting
Deliberation Council (BADC)

The Netherlands
Dutch Civil Code (in the accounting and
financial reporting provisions)

United Kingdom
Accounting Standards Board (ASB) issued
Statement of Standard Accounting Practice
(SSAPs) and Statement of Recommended
Practice (SORPs)

United States
Financial Accounting Standards Board
(FASB) issued GAAP (Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles) , include
Statements of Financial Accounting
Standards (SFASs)

Orientasi dari Laporan Keuangan

A fair presentation of financial position and results of
operations = sejujur-jujurnya
Micro-based (Anglo-Saxon accounting)
(Associated with a common law legal system and share
holders as the principal source of finance)

Compliance with legal requirements and tax laws =

sepatuh-patuhnya
Macro-uniform
(Tend to have a code law legal system and rely heavily on
banks and the government as sources of finance)

Orientasi dari Laporan Keuangan

The distinction between fair presentation and
legal compliance countries has pervasive effects
on many accounting issues, such as:
ASSET & LIABILITY MEASUREMENT
OWNERS EQUITY & PERIODIC INCOME
DETERMINATION

SYNOPSES OF SIX NATIONAL FINANCIAL

ACCOUNTING PRACTICES SYSTEMS
These 6 nations (French, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands,
United Kingdom, United States) constitute the critical mass in
financial accounting worldwide.

About :
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARD
SETTING
ACCOUNTING MEASUREMENTS
FINANCIAL REPORTING

Nobess Classification of Accounting Systems: 1980

Accounting in a Macro-User and Micro-User

Oriented Environment (Saudagaran & Diga, 1997)
Functional Core
Capital markets

Role in Macro-User Oriented

Accounting helps ensure financial
stewardship, i.e., non-dissipation
of assets and protection of
creditors

Role in Micro-User Oriented

Accounting provides relevant
and reliable information about
an enterprises true state of
economic well-being

*dissipation=pemborosan

Taxation

Accounting plays a primary role;

no difference between tax
accounting and financial
accounting methods

Accounting plays an indirect

and support role; tax
accounting and financial
accounting methods
differentiated clearly

National economic
planning

Accounting:
Ensures the effect of
government economic
policies are reflected in
enterprise accounts
Provides inputs for industry
or national accounting reports

Accounting plays an incidental

role. Government relies
indirectly, if at all, on enterprise
accounts in preparing national
or industry economic plans

 Makro: dari pemerintah turun ke bawah

Mikro: akuntansinya dari praktek-praktek
bisnis

 Four developing countries in emerging

capital markets: China (Peoples Republic
of China), Czech Republic, Mexico, Taiwan.