[Keywords:] accounting elements; International; China; compare
Accounting is a branch of applied science, which provides information about enterprise management and financial management activities to information users. We should take absorbing and drawing lessons from all the good experiences of foreign accounting as one of our important purposes. Throughout history, accounting has been developed to meet the needs of people engaged in economic transactions. With the internationalization of productive forces, accounting has naturally kept pace with the development. But there are obvious differences in accounting all over the world. This is because the development of accounting is influenced by various factors. Different, economical and harmonious will produce different accounting systems, and the accounting standards and practices of each country are the result of the interaction of economic, economic, institutional and cultural factors. Accounting elements are titles given by people in order to properly classify the contents reflected in accounting or accounting statements. The division and establishment of accounting elements is the product of the combination of human subjective consciousness and objective requirements. There are subjective and objective reasons for the differences in the setting of accounting elements. This combination between any two countries is almost impossible to be the same, so the difference is inevitable. Through comparison, it will help us to absorb and learn from foreign good experience and promote China's accounting reform.
The State Council issued the Regulations on Financial Accounting Reports of Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations), which came into effect on 10/day in 2006, and is a supporting regulation of the Accounting Law. The Regulations systematically regulate the composition, compilation, external provision and legal liability of financial accounting reports, and stipulate assets, liabilities, owners' rights and interests, income, etc. Compared with the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as the Basic Standards) implemented in China 1993, the definition of six accounting elements in the Regulations has changed and improved greatly. Compared with the definition of accounting elements in other international organizations or countries, it has its own characteristics and advantages and disadvantages. Based on the definition of accounting elements stipulated by the International Accounting Standards Board in the Framework for the Preparation and Provision of Financial Statements (hereinafter referred to as the Framework), and combined with the definition of accounting elements in the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), this paper makes a comparative study with accounting elements in China, with a view to correctly understanding accounting elements.
1. Comparison of definitions of accounting elements
1. Assets
Under the framework of international accounting standards, assets are defined as: "assets refer to resources controlled by enterprises due to past events and expected to flow into enterprises in the future." According to this definition, the characteristics of assets can be summarized into three aspects: First, assets can directly or indirectly bring economic benefits to enterprises. In other words, as an economic resource, assets can be used independently or combined with other resources to bring economic benefits to enterprises through effective use, otherwise they should not be recognized as assets. This is the most important feature of assets. Second, assets are acquired by enterprises in the past economic and business activities. Only the economic and business events that happened in the past can increase or decrease the assets of an enterprise, and an asset cannot be increased or decreased according to the plan or. Third, assets must be owned or controlled by enterprises. Ownership refers to the ownership of the enterprise; Control means that although an enterprise does not enjoy ownership, it has mastered the actual future benefits and risks of an asset and can obtain future economic benefits through the use of the asset.
The definition of assets in the Regulations is: "Assets refer to resources formed by past transactions and events, which are owned or controlled by enterprises and are expected to bring economic benefits to enterprises." Compared with the definition of assets in the basic standards, this definition has the following changes: first, it adds "past transactions and events"; The second is to add "expected to bring economic benefits to enterprises"; Third, the "can be measured by money" was cancelled. The changed definition maintains the consistency with international accounting standards in theory, and highly summarizes the basic characteristics of assets. Its practical significance lies in that the scope of resources included in enterprise accounting can be determined according to the definition of assets, and new requirements are put forward for the current financial report. For example, enterprises are required to list "non-performing assets" separately in the statements or explain them in the notes to the accounting statements, because non-performing assets are not expected to bring future economic benefits to enterprises. As for the cancellation of "monetary measurement", the author thinks that the main reason is that monetary measurement, as one of the three pillars of financial accounting, has been included in the basic premise of accounting, that is, all economic and business matters that have passed accounting are measured in currency, which does not need to be mentioned in the definition, and this also applies to debt elements.
The Financial Accounting Standards Committee defines assets as: "Assets are the possible future economic benefits that a specific subject obtains or controls due to past transactions or events". This "future economic benefit" has become the same basis for all accounting elements. Australia's definition of assets is basically the same as that of the United States, with the difference that assets are "controlled by enterprises" rather than "acquired". Both international accounting standards and New Zealand believe that assets are "controlled by enterprises", but international accounting standards believe that the connotation of assets is "economic resources". Although different countries have different expressions, they basically reveal the basic characteristics of assets, just as the American financial accounting concept announcement puts forward three characteristics of assets when defining assets. First, assets contain future economic benefits, among which future economic benefits are the ability to bring future cash flow to enterprises; Second, enterprises can obtain economic benefits from assets or control others to obtain such benefits; Third, transactions or other events that lead the enterprise to obtain such benefits and control others to obtain such benefits have occurred. This definition is similar to the definition of the new accounting method in China, and it is essentially the same.
be in debt
In the framework of international accounting standards, liabilities are defined as: "Liabilities refer to the existing obligations of enterprises arising from past events, and the liquidation of this obligation will cause the outflow of enterprise resources with economic benefits". According to this definition, the basic characteristics of liabilities can be summarized into three aspects: first, liabilities are the existing economic obligations of enterprises, which are caused by past economic and business matters; Second, the liabilities will be paid off by the enterprise at some time in the future; Third, paying off debts will also lead to the outflow of economic benefits of enterprises.
The definition of liabilities in the Regulations is: "Liabilities refer to the current obligations formed by past transactions and events, and the fulfillment of this obligation is expected to lead to the outflow of economic benefits from the enterprise." It is basically consistent with the definition of liabilities in the framework and summarizes the basic characteristics of liabilities.
The Financial Accounting Standards Committee defines debt FASB as an obligation to sacrifice economic interests now and in the future. The concept announcement of American financial accounting holds that liabilities have three characteristics: (1) it indicates the current obligations or responsibilities of one entity to other entities, which will be paid off by transferring or using assets on a specific date in the future; (2) This obligation or responsibility makes the enterprise unable to avoid the sacrifice of future interests, or has little choice; (3) The transaction or event that causes the enterprise to assume obligations or responsibilities has occurred.
FASB defines debt as: "The behavior that a specific subject may sacrifice economic interests in the future because of its existing obligations, which is caused by past transactions or events and manifested as transferring assets or providing services." Australia and New Zealand have exactly the same definition of debt as the United States. The definition of international accounting standards is: "Liabilities are current obligations, which are caused by past events. Paying off this obligation will lead to the outflow of resources with economic benefits. " Although different countries have different expressions, one thing is the same, that is, they all think that debt is an economic obligation or economic responsibility, and they all grasp the essence of debt "outflow of future economic benefits". For example, the United States, Australia, Britain and New Zealand think that debt is "the sacrifice of economic interests" or "the economic interests that must be transferred"; The International Accounting Standards Board thinks it is "the outflow of resources with economic benefits"; Canada uses enumeration method to express: "In the future, we will transfer or use assets, or provide services, or give up other economic benefits"; In China, "the sacrifice of economic benefits" is described as "those who will pay by providing services or paying economic resources".
3. Owner's equity
The definition of owner's equity in international accounting standards is: "Property right (owner's equity) refers to the residual equity of an enterprise's assets after deducting all liabilities." According to this definition, the basic feature of owner's equity is the residual equity of the enterprise, that is, the balance of assets after deducting liabilities belongs to the owner of the enterprise. The accounting equation expresses owner's equity as: owner's equity = assets-liabilities. The equation shows that liabilities, as creditors' claims on enterprise assets, are established obligations formed by past transactions or events; Under the premise of fixed liabilities, the owner's equity is affected by the change of assets, and the benefits and risks coexist. When assets decrease due to operating losses after profit distribution, owners' equity decreases.
The definition of owner's equity in the regulations is: "Owner's equity refers to the economic benefits enjoyed by the owner in the assets of the enterprise.
Interest is the balance of assets minus liabilities. "It not only indicates that the owner's equity belongs to the enterprise owner, but also indicates that its amount is the residual equity of the enterprise. The United States refers to owner's equity as "equity" and thinks that "equity is the residual equity enjoyed by an entity after assets are deducted from liabilities". The International Accounting Standards Board, New Zealand, Australia and other countries have exactly the same definition of rights and interests as the United States.
4. Income
Income has broad and narrow definitions. Generally speaking, China's accounting theorists believe that income in a broad sense includes operating income, non-operating income and income, while income in a narrow sense only refers to operating income. The income elements listed in the framework of international accounting standards can be understood as income in a broad sense, which is defined as: "Income refers to the increase of interest during the accounting period, which is manifested as the increase of property rights caused by the inflow of assets, the increase of assets or the decrease of liabilities, but does not include similar matters related to the capital contribution of property owners." It is further pointed out: "The definition of income includes income and profit. Income is generated in the daily activities of the enterprise and has various names, including sales income, service fee, interest, dividend, use fee, rent, etc. " "Profit includes other items that meet the definition of income." The definition of income in International Accounting StandardNo. 18 is narrow: "Income refers to the total inflow of economic benefits formed by enterprises in their daily activities, which leads to the increase of rights and interests." This definition does not include the increase in equity caused by investors' contribution. FASB uses a narrow concept of income. The definition of income is: "Income refers to the inflow or improvement of assets and liquidation (or both) caused by the production or manufacture of goods, provision of labor services and other major or central businesses." Income is the inflow of future economic benefits. Income only refers to the income from normal business activities and investment activities, and emphasizes the complete process of income realization based on the "income theory of circulation process". For abnormal operating income, FASB has set up a separate "profit" element to reflect it, because profit is essentially an "incidental" and "marginal" net income. The establishment of the "loss" factor reflects the expenditure of abnormal business activities, because the loss is essentially an "incidental" and "marginal" net loss. There is no causal relationship between gains and losses, so it does not need to be confirmed according to the principle of proportion. "Comprehensive income" is only the result of regularly summarizing income, expenses and profit and loss.
The definition of income in the regulations is: "Income refers to the total inflow of economic benefits formed by enterprises in their daily activities such as selling goods, providing services and transferring the right to use assets. Revenue does not include money collected for third parties or customers. " It not only points out that income comes from the daily activities of enterprises, but also shows that income will increase the economic interests of enterprises.
5. expenses
Expense is an accounting element matched with income, which can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. The expense elements listed in the framework of international accounting standards are generalized expenses that match the income elements. Its definition is: "Expense refers to the decrease of economic benefits during the accounting period, which is manifested by the decrease of owner's property rights caused by asset outflow, asset loss or liabilities, but does not include similar matters related to the distribution of property owners." And further pointed out: "The definition of expenses includes both losses and expenses incurred in the daily activities of enterprises. Examples of expenses incurred in the daily activities of enterprises are sales, wages and depreciation. " "Loss refers to other projects that meet the definition of expenses in or outside the daily activities of the enterprise. "It can be seen that expenses in a broad sense include not only the reduction and consumption of assets to obtain operating income, but also the reduction and loss of assets unrelated to obtaining operating income; The narrow sense of cost only refers to the former. Corresponding to income in a narrow sense, expenses in a narrow sense have the following characteristics: first, the expenses incurred by enterprises in their daily activities to obtain income; Second, the occurrence of expenses will lead to the outflow of economic benefits of enterprises. According to this feature, the current production cost should not be recognized as an expense. In China, the definition of expenses in relevant accounting laws and regulations is relatively narrow.
FASB uses the narrow concept of cost elements. Expenses are the outflow of future economic benefits. Expenses only refer to normal operating expenses or expenses, which are based on the principles of matching and accrual accounting, emphasizing the causal relationship of expenses and the reasonable attribution of expenses responsibilities. According to the matching principle, no confirmation is required. "Comprehensive income" only refers to the results of summarizing income, expenses and profit and loss in a specified period.
The definition of expenses in the Regulations is: "Expenses refer to the outflow of economic benefits in daily activities such as selling goods and providing services." The characteristics of expenses are comprehensively summarized. Consistent with the definition of income in the regulations.
6. Profit
Profit is a difference, reflecting that the generalized income obtained by an enterprise in a certain period exceeds the generalized expenses. International accounting standards do not define profit as an accounting element alone in the framework. This may be because income and expenses are broad concepts, and profit is the difference between income and expenses. If profit is not taken as an element, it will not affect recognition. American FASB does not define profit either, but profit, as an accounting element, is the result of the quantitative ratio of income and expenses. Profit based on generalized income and generalized expense ratio is the concept of comprehensive income advocated by FASB in the United States. American FASB defines comprehensive income as "comprehensive income includes all changes in equity except the owner's investment and the currency allocated to the owner during the reporting period".
The regulation defines profit as: "Profit refers to the operating results of an enterprise in a certain accounting period." The meaning of the two is basically the same. The author thinks that there are two reasons for consistency: first, there is no separate definition of profit in international accounting standards, and there is no obvious problem of integrating with international standards; Secondly, the meaning of profit factor has been widely recognized in China's accounting theory and practice, which accords with China's national conditions and becomes one of the characteristics of China's accounting. It should be noted that, due to the narrow definitions of income elements and expense elements, the gains in generalized income (non-operating income and investment income) and the losses in generalized expenses (non-operating expenditure and investment loss) are classified into the second-level definition of profit and become the composition of enterprise net profit.
Second, the improvement of accounting object elements
Generally speaking, FASB, IASC and China have their own advantages in establishing accounting elements. All three have established the "basic elements" of accounting objects, but neglected the definition of other levels of elements. Among the basic elements established, the result of IASC is more reasonable. Although FASB involves the establishment of sub-level elements, such as "owner's investment", it cannot explain the internal relationship among all elements. China accounting standards basically absorbed the advantages of FASB and IASC.
However, the author believes that there are two defects in the establishment of the above accounting elements: the theoretical defect is to ignore the decisive factors affecting the establishment of accounting elements; The defects in practice are that the existing accounting elements can not provide theoretical explanations for accounting methods (such as the theoretical basis of various financial statements), and there is a lack of proper internal relations between accounting elements.
The establishment of accounting elements mainly depends on the characteristics of real economic activities and the requirements of investors for accounting information provided by enterprises. The purpose of establishing accounting elements is to standardize the understanding of accounting objects and their laws (manifested as accounting object elements and their internal relations) and lay a foundation for the normal operation of accounting information systems. The elements of accounting objects and their relations are the theoretical basis for the establishment and application of various accounting methods. Including accounts, double-entry bookkeeping, accounting confirmation and measurement, financial statements, etc. And the application of accounting methods is directly related to the satisfaction of enterprise investors' demand for accounting information. Therefore, the definition of accounting object elements not only affects the choice and application of accounting methods, but also relates to the realization of accounting objectives.
The characteristics of economy and enterprise economic activities affect the establishment of accounting object elements. The objectives and characteristics of economic activities of profit-making organizations and non-profit organizations are very different, so the setting of accounting object elements is also different. The characteristics of economic activities and specific accounting objectives of non-sustainable enterprises are different from those of sustainable enterprises, and the elements of accounting objects are also different. For example, the accounting object elements of a liquidation enterprise are liquidation assets, liquidation debts, liquidation net equity, liquidation gains and liquidation losses.
Accounting goal is the goal of accounting confirmation, measurement, recording and reporting. It is the connection point between accounting system and economic environment, which embodies the objective requirements of enterprise economic environment for accounting and the internal demand of investors for accounting information. The establishment of accounting object elements is deeply influenced by accounting objectives. Because the connotation and extension of accounting objectives always change and deepen with the changes of social and economic environment, the division of accounting object elements and the importance of different elements are not static. The continuous innovation of derivative instruments and the rapid development of other new transactions have greatly expanded investors' demand for enterprise accounting information in breadth and depth. Accordingly, the establishment of accounting object elements is also undergoing profound changes. 1992 10, the British Accounting Standards Board (ASB) issued the No.3 Financial Reporting Standard (ARSNO.3), aiming at the defect that the income statement only disclosed the "realized and confirmed" income under the traditional financial accounting system, but could not meet the investors' demand for "true and fair" information, and put forward the confirmation of "comprehensive income". This standard will be included in the income statement.
The content is expanded from "realized and confirmed" to "unrealized and confirmed", and the elements of "income" and "loss" are broadly explained. The income is considered as "the increase of owners' equity except the owner", which includes income and other income. Loss is "the decrease of owner's equity except the money distributed to the owner", which includes expenses and other losses in content. Coincidentally. The Announcement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFASNo. 130) published by the United States 1997 requires reporting the "comprehensive income" of enterprises, which is actually similar. Therefore, we should use the concept of development and change to understand the elements of accounting objects and their establishment.
The influence of the change of accounting objectives on accounting elements is mainly reflected in the improvement of the structural system of accounting elements and the expansion of the connotation of accounting elements (such as the "expansion" of the connotation of factors such as profits and comprehensive income).
The author believes that the elements of accounting object are essentially a whole concept with multi-level structure. In this overall structure, static elements and dynamic elements are unified, stock elements and flow elements are combined, and basic elements, secondary elements and branch elements are interrelated at three levels.
According to the framework structure of accounting object elements proposed by the author, financial statements reflect nothing more than assets, liabilities, rights and interests, income and expenses, and financial statements that mainly reflect "basic elements" are the basic financial statements of enterprises, such as balance sheets and income statements. Generally speaking, financial statements based on basic elements are relatively stable, while financial statements based on secondary elements or secondary elements are highly variable, which is proved by the substitution of cash flow statement for statement of changes in financial position. Of course, in order to adapt to the changes in the economic environment and accounting objectives, the financial statement system and structure of enterprises will continue to change, but its theoretical basis will still be the framework structure of the above accounting objects. The basic characteristics of the above definition of accounting elements are: taking a specific subject as the main body and taking economic benefits as the main line, which not only reveals the essential characteristics of each element, but also clarifies the internal relations of each element, forming a scientific and reasonable accounting element system.
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