Title: The new rules of accounting for goodwill and their impact on financial reporting

Authors: Sulayman H. Atieh

Addresses: Department of Accounting, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE.

Abstract: Goodwill is an accounting term for the difference between what an acquiring company pays for an acquisition and the fair value of the acquired company|s net assets. The new accounting rules, as presented in the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142, eliminate the amortization of goodwill and require companies to test the value of goodwill they carry on their financial statements at least annually and write down its value if the fair value of the goodwill is less than its recorded value. The implementation of these new accounting rules has a great impact on earnings and the prices of stocks. Many companies have announced estimates of potential goodwill impairment charges that they will take in adopting the new accounting rules. The stock prices of companies that are candidates for goodwill write-downs already have declined, reflecting investors| awareness that these acquisitions no longer are as promising as once believed.

Keywords: accounting for goodwill; accounting rules; financial reporting; Statement of Financial Accounting Standards; goodwill impairment charges; amortization of goodwill.

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2003.007808

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2003 Vol.1 No.1, pp.58 - 62

Published online: 23 Sep 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article