It is apparent that the majority of national standard setters support an IASB-generated alternative reporting
regime for SMEs, arguing that IFRS have been developed specifically for listed entities and they are not relevant
for SMEs (Baskerville and Cordery, 2006). The question of whether or not there should be separate set of
accounting standards for small businesses has been debated for over a long period of time. This issue has been
first considered in 1980s both in the United States and Canada. In search of the answer, the accounting
community in the U.S. had certain concern over how certain accounting standards, such as those on deferred
income taxes, leases, related party transactions and consolidated financial statements, should apply to small
business. Several studies conducted in the 1980s pointed out the fact that the cost of producing separate financial
statements and the complexity of accounting standards are important issues that should be further investigated.
Later in the 1990s, The United Kingdom’s Accounting Standards Board issued the “Financial Reporting
Standard for Smaller Entities” (FRSSE), while Canada’s Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) commissioned a
research report to examine the financial reporting burden borne by small business enterprises.