In order to fully implement the principle of prudence, "squeeze out" the "moisture" in assets and ensure the reliability and relevance of accounting information, International Accounting Standard No.36-Impairment of Assets stipulates that if the book value of an asset exceeds its recoverable value, the asset has been impaired. Article 53 of the Accounting System for Enterprises stipulates: "An enterprise shall conduct a comprehensive inspection of all assets at regular intervals or at least at the end of each year, and reasonably estimate the possible impairment losses of all assets according to the requirements of the principle of prudence, and make provision for impairment". Undoubtedly, the provision for impairment of these assets, to a certain extent, prevents enterprises from exaggerating assets and inflating profits due to inaccurate asset measurement, so that accounting information can truly reflect the objective situation of the financial situation and operating results of enterprises. But this does not rule out that improper operation or subjective manipulation will have a negative impact on the quality of accounting information in its actual operation.
2 the necessity and importance of asset impairment reserve
2. 1 Provision for impairment of assets makes enterprise assets truly meet the requirements of asset definition.
Assets refer to resources formed by past transactions and events and owned or controlled by enterprises, which are expected to bring economic benefits to enterprises. In the process of production and operation, there are various risks and uncertainties. In accounting, we should be cautious, fully estimate all kinds of risks and losses, don't overestimate assets or income, and calculate a lot of liabilities or expenses.
2.2 Asset impairment accounting provides a way to measure the true value of assets.
Asset impairment accounting refers to the accounting method that all the economic benefits that an asset may flow into an enterprise in the future are lower than the current book value of the asset, and the asset impairment is confirmed, measured and disclosed in accounting. Its essence is to replace cost measurement with value measurement, and recognize the part with book amount greater than value as asset impairment loss or expense.
2.3 Asset measurement is close to its true value, which is helpful for information users to make investment decisions.
Asset impairment reserve accounting provides realistic and potential investors with information related to decision-making such as future cash inflow or outflow, and emphasizes the relevance of accounting information quality.
2.4 The provision for impairment of assets can ensure the authenticity of enterprise financial information to a certain extent.
The provision for impairment of comparable assets not only reflects the importance of the principle of prudence, but also avoids the inflated profits of enterprises caused by inflated assets. It should be noted that the application of the principle of prudence does not mean that enterprises can set up secret reserves, otherwise it is the abuse of the principle of prudence and will be regarded as the handling of major accounting errors.
The provision for impairment of assets does have its importance and superiority, but its implementation in recent 3-5 years has been distorted by some enterprises for various purposes, and the defects in the provision for impairment of assets have affected the quality of accounting data and information in the specific use process.
3 the impact of asset impairment reserves on accounting information
There are many reasons for the distortion of accounting information. Among them, the lack of reliability in the confirmation and measurement of accounting elements is one of the main reasons that affect the authenticity of accounting information, which makes the book value of assets reflected in accounting statements seriously deviate from the actual value of assets, inflated assets and inflated profits, and many enterprises win in vain, resulting in the lack of objective authenticity of accounting information.
3. 1 The provision for asset impairment can reflect the asset value and profit more truly.
In order to improve the quality of enterprise accounting information in China, the definition of accounting elements has been revised in the enterprise accounting system to make it more in line with its quality characteristics. The Accounting System for Business Enterprises stipulates that if all assets of an enterprise have been impaired, provision for impairment shall be made, and the provision for impairment shall be included in the current profit and loss. The asset value should be reflected in the accounting statements according to the balance after deducting the impairment reserve. As a loss, the asset impairment is included in the current profit and loss, which can reflect the asset value and profit more truly and plays a very important role in improving the reliability of enterprise accounting information.
3.2 The preparation for asset impairment brings new problems to the quality of enterprise accounting information.
The Accounting System for Business Enterprises only stipulates the provision for asset impairment in principle. The method and proportion of accrual are determined by the enterprise itself according to the specific situation. Some conditions for confirming asset impairment are only general descriptions, which require accountants to judge according to the market price and profitability of assets, which is not practical. When making provision for asset impairment, the measurement standards of asset impairment include current market price, recoverable amount and net realizable value. Due to the existence of these uncertain factors in asset impairment reserve, on the one hand, it gives accountants a large space for professional judgment, on the other hand, it also makes the provision of asset impairment reserve subjective and uncertain, which facilitates the profit manipulation of enterprises. When making provision for impairment of assets, enterprises take advantage of the uncertainty and the autonomy given by the Accounting System for Enterprises, and regard the provision for impairment of assets as a "reservoir" to adjust the profits of each period. According to the profit realized in each period of the enterprise, increase, decrease or not mention the asset impairment reserve, or even reverse the asset impairment reserve, so as to adjust the book value and profit of assets in each period. This creates the illusion of enterprise profit balance and makes accounting information no longer true and reliable. This problem cannot but attract attention.
3.3 In the long run, the provision for impairment of assets does not really reflect the principle of conservatism.
The impact of asset impairment preparation on accounting information is not only one accounting period, but several accounting periods, namely, the accounting period of asset impairment preparation and the accounting period of asset disposal. Therefore, it is doubtful whether the provision for asset impairment conforms to the envisaged conservative principle. As the provision for impairment of assets in the current period reduces the book value and profit of assets in the current period, the provision for impairment of assets in the current period should be offset when calculating the profit and loss of disposal of assets, resulting in an increase in income. In this way, the loss in the current period is converted into the gain during the asset disposal period, that is, the loss in the previous period is stable, while the loss in the next period is unstable. For example, an enterprise has a long-term stock investment with a book balance of 300,000 yuan, and has made provision for impairment of long-term investment of 654.38 million yuan, and the enterprise has transferred it at a price of 220,000 yuan. The relevant accounting treatments that enterprises should do are as follows:
When making provision for asset impairment,
Borrow: investment income 100 000
Loan: impairment reserve for long-term investment 100 000
When transferring long-term investments,
Debit: 220,000 in the bank.
Long-term investment impairment reserve 100 000
Loan: Long-term equity investment of 300,000 yuan.
Investment income 20000
Judging from the actual situation, the long-term investment with an investment cost of 300,000 yuan only gained a transfer income of 220,000 yuan and a loss of 80,000 yuan. However, due to the provision for impairment of RMB 654.38+million, when the provision for impairment of long-term investment is made, the book reflects the investment loss of RMB 654.38+million and reduces the profit of RMB 654.38+million, which reflects the principle of conservatism. However, when the long-term investment is transferred, the book reflects the investment income of 20 thousand yuan, but does not reflect the loss of investment transfer, and the accounting information does not reflect the principle of conservatism. In this way, the stability of accounting information is not continuous. In the long run, the principle of conservatism cannot be truly reflected in the provision of asset impairment.
4 Countermeasures for issues related to asset impairment reserve
There are many reasons for the problem of asset impairment preparation, such as insufficient business ethics construction, imperfect legal system and imperfect supervision mechanism. Judging from the actual situation at this stage, we should do the following work well.
4. 1 Improve the internal accounting control system
Accounting control not only has the function of standardizing the accounting behavior of enterprises, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of accounting data, preventing and correcting errors and frauds in time, but also plays an important role in improving the management level of modern enterprises and realizing the business objectives of enterprises. At present, the Ministry of Finance promulgated the Internal Accounting Control Standards-Basic Standards (Trial) in June, 20001. In addition to the detailed provisions on "monetary funds", the accounting control of other economic businesses only provides basic provisions on methods and inspections, resulting in a vacuum in the legal system.
4.2 improve the professional ethics of accountants themselves
Accounting professional ethics refers to the accounting professional code of conduct that accountants follow in their professional activities. Accountants should not only be proficient in business and competent in their work, but more importantly, ensure the authenticity and reliability of accounting information. The judgment and expression of economic business that needs to be reflected should be based on objective standpoint, objective facts and seeking truth from facts. In actual accounting practice, due to various reasons such as professional quality and standardized interests, the accounting information provided by accountants is seriously distorted, which shows the urgency of strengthening the construction of accounting professional ethics and self-discipline management.
4.3 Establish and improve relevant laws and regulations, and strengthen the legal responsibilities of relevant subjects.
At present, some enterprises use accounting methods to adjust accounting data, which not only loses the integrity of enterprises, but also challenges the credibility of accounting. For the illegal subjects involved in accounting information fraud, it is necessary not only to clarify their legal responsibilities, but also to improve the deterrence of legal responsibilities. At present, the problem of accounting data distortion in Chinese enterprises is becoming more and more serious, which has a lot to do with the low deterrent of legal responsibility. Only when there are rules to follow, laws to follow and strict law enforcement can we truly standardize the accounting behavior of enterprises, crack down on the practice of fraud by accounting means, ensure the normal operation of some enterprises and safeguard public interests.
4.4 Strengthen the unity and clarity of asset impairment accounting
(1) The standard-setting department should carefully determine the scope of the enterprise's professional judgment and give the enterprise the right to choose accounting policies. Due to the imperfection of corporate governance structure, accounting standards and accounting information market, the existence of accounting policy option is inevitable. Foreign research also shows that giving enterprises certain accounting flexibility is convenient for enterprises to transmit their unique information to the market through professional judgment and accounting choice, thus reducing the implementation cost of the standards. It can be said that the relevant provisions of the asset impairment policy in the enterprise accounting system are the concrete application of the basic accounting theory, and also the concrete embodiment of strengthening the accounting reform in China and connecting with the international accounting system as soon as possible. Many empirical research results also found that enterprises facing the pressure of "statements" did not correctly use the accounting option given by the enterprise accounting system, but regarded it as an opportunity for profit manipulation, which violated the original intention of the relevant provisions on asset impairment accounting and caused the wrong allocation of stock market resources. Therefore, although we do not advocate simply eliminating the right of accounting choice to ensure the authenticity and reliability of accounting information, we still believe that it is absolutely necessary to properly limit the right of enterprises to choose accounting policies at present.
(2) The securities regulatory authorities should strengthen the supervision of accounting options of enterprises and improve the transparency of information disclosure of listed companies. Because the scarce resources in China's stock market are still mainly allocated by the government on the "report performance" of listed companies, it is difficult to avoid that many companies often use accounting options to reorganize the "report performance" in order to realize their refinancing in the stock market when they cannot achieve "report performance" through "actual performance" and thus lose their qualification for resource allocation. Therefore, the securities regulatory authorities should reform the way of resource allocation and strengthen supervision at the same time, forcing listed companies to disclose the impact of accounting choices on profits.