The adoption of A-IFRS has resulted in the introduction of fundamental changes to the Australian accounting and reporting regime for goodwill. The impairment testing led approach to goodwill reporting required under A-IFRS results in a materially different approach to goodwill valuation for balance sheet purposes and to the nature and timing of the influence of goodwill as an asset class on the determination of periodic profit. Arguably, the transition to A-IFRS goodwill accounting and reporting also results in substantially increased complexity – both in terms of the techniques required of reporting entities in accounting for goodwill, and in the nature of disclosures required in relation to goodwill and its impairment. This suggests the possibility of inconsistent compliance and varying levels of disclosure quality by firms making their first reports under the new regime. Consequently, this paper examines the level of compliance with a variety of the provisions of AASB 136 – Impairment of Assets and the quality of disclosure provided in accordance with that standard, by reviewing the 2006 accounts of a sample of 50 large Australian listed corporations. Material levels of non compliance were found and a material degree of variation in the quality and precision of disclosures pertaining to impairment testing procedures was also evident. Policy recommendations and potential directions for future research are identified and discussed.
Keywords: Goodwill, Financial Reporting, Creative Accounting, Impairment Accounting
INTRODUCTION
Speaking before an audience at Temple University in 1965, Leonard Spacek declared, emphatically, that goodwill existed as an asset for practically every business. He was equally emphatic however, that the small matter of measuring its value was deeply vexed and that many of the accounting practices relating to goodwill he observed in use at that time were “outmoded”, “rigid” and “indefensible”. His frustration with goodwill accounting practices was no doubt deeply rooted in his vast experience as a practitioner.
However, scholars of accounting too have also long been concerned with the difficulties associated with conceptualising, measuring and reporting on this financial Will-o’the-Wisp. As far back as 1929, Canning noted that the main achievement of the literature accumulated on the subject of goodwill to that point was to generate a striking variety and number of disagreements on the issue. Plus ca change.
Indeed, the one apparent constant in the goodwill story is dissent, untempered by the passage of time, as to how best to deal with this black sheep of the balance sheet. In some cases this has manifested in the form of earnest (though mild) discussion as to whether goodwill, to the extent that it appeared on the balance sheet ought be labelled as a “fixed asset” or an “intangible asset” of the business (Fjeld, 1936; Walker, 1938).
Some, apparently exasperated with the slipperiness of goodwill as a construct thought it ought to be expunged from the financial statements as soon as it had come into existence. Chambers supported this approach, objecting to goodwill’s right to a place on the balance sheet by reason of its lack of “severability” and (to his eyes) lack of capacity to contribute to what he termed the “adaptability of the firm” (Chambers, 1966, p.218). Miller would also have consigned goodwill to immediate writedown. Such treatment, he argued, was the least worst means of resolving the fate of an illegitimate creature born of a wholly inadequate framework for the aggregation of assets (Miller, 1973).
Gynther, on the other hand, thought it absurd to engage in rituals of mandatory amortisation and writedown of goodwill taking the view that it could (and ought) as confidently assert its membership of the on balance sheet asset club as other less colourful actors. Optimistic about rapid advancements in measurement techniques, he saw no objection to the recognition (via a continuous revaluation regime) even of that much dreaded sub-species, internally generated goodwill (Gynther, 1969).
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