engleski

SMEs Financial Reporting Harmonization: Back to the Past or to the Future?

Today the debate on accounting and harmonization processes involving small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial in Europe, where SMEs account for 99, 9 % of the total number of businesses). In response, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) designed for use by small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) on July 9, 2009. However, some national European standard-setters do not seem to be keen on introducing them. Accordingly, the aim of our paper is to provide an overview of the debate on SMEs’ accounting harmonization. Both Italy and Croatia present interesting case studies because initially their national legislators seemed to be more favorable than other Europeans to spread the IFRS “model” among SMEs. However, in both cases the legislation did not achieve its expected results. Consequently, we will try to explain the reasons hindering SMEs’ accounting harmonization in Europe, and to provide suggestions for future developments concerning accounting harmonization for SMEs.

local GAAP; Accounting harmonization; IAS adoption; SMEs; financial reporting innovation

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