- Amortisation of goodwill over 10 years in IFRS-SME (none in Europe)
- Negative goodwill being recognised immediately in profit and loss
- Amounts receivable from equity instruments to offset equity – not treated as an asset, and
- No reversal of goodwill impairment permitted.
At the time of the release of this information EFRAG was still undecided as to whether IFRS-SME was acceptable for the financial reporting of European SMEs. These differences are similar to those between current NZ differential reporting standards and IFRS-SME.
The comparison of IFRS-SME and UK financial reporting in Topazio (2009) found similar differences, being:
- Amortisation of Goodwill over 10 years
- Accounting for business combinations
- Cash flow statement
- Deferred tax
- Accounting for financial instruments
- No segment reporting, and
- No earnings per share.
Another European study of SMEs, from the Czech Republic, recognises that there is limited integration of SMEs into the EU single European Market. It is therefore questionable whether harmonisation of SME financial reporting is really necessary (Mullerova et al., 2010). The issues that appear to hinder integration into the European Market include different legal and tax systems, limited access to capital and finance, cultural and language barriers, and limited support of SMEs in the market.
Mullerova et al., (2010) also believe that the apparent convergence of IFRS-SME with US GAAP may be destructive to European accounting values. However, they agree that where there are foreign investors in an SME, or the SME is part of a consolidated group, that IFRS-SME may have a place in European SME financial reporting. However, the responses to their questionnaire indicate that SMEs in the Czech Republic do not expect any benefit from using IFRS-SME, and that they do not anticipate using the standard in the future. This is apparently due to the higher expected cost of reporting under IFRS-SME.
The limited perceived need for international harmonisation of SME financial reports is relevant to NZ. Unlike Europe (or the Americas, Asia & Africa), NZ does not border other