The implementation of the IFRS for sme in the Eu

Abstract

Small and medium sized companies have very important position in the EU economy, mainly in the area of employment. Their activities on the internal market are limited by a great deal of obstacles. The most important obstacles can be considered different national financial reporting and tax systems. IASB published an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) designed for use by small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). The IFRS for SME is expressly designed to meet the financial reporting needs of entities that (a) do not have public accountability and (b) publish general purpose financial statements for external users. This standard could be a suitable instrument for the SME accounting harmonization. The aim of the paper is to analyze the problems connected with the harmonization of accounting legislation used by SMEs in EU countries especially in the Czech Republic. In the frame of methodology the empirical research was used. The author has distributed questionnaires to the enterprises in the Czech Republic, selected according to their size and the field of activity. Comment letters of 210 respondents from 26 EU Member States were used for evaluation possibilities of the IFRS for implementation to national legislation. Based on the results of empirical research some problems could arise with the IFRS for SME application. Based on the questionnaires, respondents are highly interested in the costs and gains of IFRS for SME application. The gains should exceed the costs of IFRS for SME application.