The Role and Current Status of IFRS in the Completion of National Accounting Rules – Evidence from Belgium

Abstract

We study the incorporation of EU Directive 2013/34/EU on financial reporting into Belgian legislation. By analyzing the forces that shape the transposition of this Directive, we examine opportunities and obstacles in the Belgian institutional environment that hinder or stimulate the possibilities for the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to influence financial reporting by private firms in Belgium. As a result of several national forces, the Belgian legislature did not use all opportunities available to modernize financial reporting for private entities when transposing this Directive. We further discuss existing differences between Belgian National Accounting Rules for private enterprises and the IFRS and observe that the influence of the latter on financial reporting regulation for private enterprises in Belgium remains rather limited.

Keywords:

• IFRS
• private entities
• financial reporting
• Belgium
• EU accounting directive 2013/34/EU

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Henri Olivier, Ignace Bogaert and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.