The new accounting standards system promulgated by the Ministry of Finance (consisting of 1 basic standards and 38 specific standards) was first implemented in listed companies from 1 in 2007. The main feature of the new standard is convergence with international standards and convergence with international practices in many aspects, which lays the foundation for China to integrate into global integration more quickly.
In the new standard system, the most interesting point is the introduction of fair value. For a long time, in financial accounting, the historical cost measurement of assets is an important basic principle, and the historical cost measurement mode has become the dominant accounting measurement mode. In China, accounting measurement has always followed the principle of historical cost. Therefore, after the promulgation of the new standards, many people think that this is a subversion of the original accounting system based on historical cost. People who have been engaged in accounting all the year round actually have a deep-rooted dependence on historical cost, and any bookkeeping is based on real vouchers. When the current accounting standards were first implemented, some old accountants were a little confused about how to make provision for the eight provisions. After all, it depends on the judgment, not the original documents. Therefore, the implementation of the new standards is a comprehensive challenge to the traditional accounting thinking.
Fair value is not a new thing. Fair value may have been introduced as early as Announcement No.4 "Basic Concepts and Principles in Financial Statements of Enterprises" (1970) and Opinion No.6 "Business Combination" (1977) of American Accounting Procedure Committee. No.265438 +0 "Interest on Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable" (197 1 year) and No.29 "Non-monetary Transaction" (1973). But it was not these announcements or opinions that first put forward the concept of fair value, but william paton, a famous American accountant. As early as March 1946, Professor Peyton published an article entitled "Cost and Value in Accounting" in Accounting magazine. In this article, Professor Peyton pointed out that "cost and value are not contradictory and mutually exclusive concepts. On the day of purchase, the cost and value are almost the same, at least in most transactions. For transactions in which the payment medium is non-cash property, the cost of purchasing assets shall be determined according to the fair market value of the transferred property. In fact, the cost is very important because it is roughly equal to the fair value on the purchase date. " The International Accounting Standards Committee introduced the concept of fair value for the first time in IAS 16 Accounting for Fixed Assets published by 1982.
Why should fair value be taken as a measurement attribute? Judging from the announcements and international accounting standards issued by FASB and its predecessor, the explanation is incomplete. Commenting on why the earlier Accounting Practice Council quoted the concept of fair value, FASB Director Foater pointed out that this was because the experts of the Accounting Practice Council believed that "fair value most faithfully reflected the essence of transactions". In the announcements of FAS 107 and FAS 133 concerning financial instruments, FASB explained that fair value reflects the market's estimation of the future net cash flow directly or indirectly implied by financial instruments, and fair value information helps users of accounting information to make reasonable predictions in the future and verify the rationality of their previous predictions; Fair value information helps investors, creditors and other users to evaluate the investment and financing decisions of enterprises, thus helping them to make correct decisions.
The adoption of fair value as the measurement attribute is determined by the purpose of financial accounting. According to the concept announcement of American financial accounting, the purpose of financial accounting is to "provide useful information for present and potential investors, creditors and other users". And "accounting information should be useful for decision-making and should have two main qualities, namely relevance and reliability". Compared with historical cost information, fair value information reflects the market's evaluation of enterprise assets or overall value, which can be well consistent with the "balance sheet" and has a stronger correlation. Therefore, both American accounting standards and international accounting standards regard it as an important basis of accounting measurement.
After China introduced fair value into the new standards, it immediately attracted the attention and discussion of all parties. Among them, there are two typical views: one is that China's current market economy is imperfect and fair value is difficult to obtain and operate; The other is that the fair value is good, but the fair value information is insufficient, and the fair value estimation is complicated, uncertain and costly, which is easy to be manipulated, resulting in untrue accounting measurement. With the continuous development of market economy, the business model of enterprises tends to be diversified and complicated, and the government behavior is more commercialized and market-oriented. The internal demand of enterprises for fair value is growing day by day. In fact, some enterprises have introduced the concept of fair value in disguise in accounting treatment.
For example, in the 1990s, the stock price manipulation case of a listed company in Shandong Province shocked the whole country. At that time, the company's share price kept rising for a long time, because the listed company revalued its real estate such as land and buildings, adjusted its accounts according to the evaluation value, and increased its capital reserve accordingly, and then converted this part of capital reserve into share capital according to the ratio of 1: 1. That is, 65,438+00 shares are sent for every 65,438+00 shares. Although the company was punished by the CSRC at that time, from the perspective of accounting treatment, it may also reflect the strong desire of early enterprises in China to introduce fair value.
In recent years, China's economy has maintained a strong growth rate. The market prices of real estate and basic materials have been rising, even several times, and the value of intangible assets is increasingly reflected, including goodwill, patents and human resources. For some old enterprises with a long history, strictly speaking, under the current standard framework system, its accounting statements are difficult to truly reflect the financial situation of enterprises. Avoid using fair value to lead to inconsistent accounting treatment of enterprises, and unable to find a better balance point in relevance, reliability and comparability. At the same time, there is always a big difference between China's accounting standards and international standards. For example:
I. Real estate and fixed assets
China adopts historical cost; International Accounting Standards (IAS) allow the revaluation of fixed assets at fair value on the basis of their book value, that is, the value of fixed assets is expressed by the fair value on the revaluation date minus the accumulated depreciation balance calculated according to the revaluation value.
Two. invisible assets
In the measurement of intangible assets invested by owners, China measures them according to the value confirmed by investors; International accounting standards stipulate that it should be measured at fair value.
Third, lease.
As for the measurement of financial lease assets and related lease liabilities by the lessee, China's accounting standards stipulate that the lessee should take the lower of the original book value of the leased assets on the lease start date and the present value of the minimum lease payment as the book value of the leased assets, and take the minimum lease payment as the book value of long-term payables, and account the difference between them as unconfirmed financing expenses; International accounting standards recognize assets and liabilities according to the lower of the fair value of leased assets and the present value of the minimum lease payment on the lease start date. For the after-sale leaseback transaction, if it is considered as an operating lease, China's accounting standards stipulate that the difference between the selling price and the book value should be deferred and apportioned according to the proportion of the lease amount during the lease period; International accounting standards stipulate that if the selling price is lower than the fair value, the profit and loss should be recognized immediately. However, when the loss can be made up by future lease payment below the market price, it should be deferred and apportioned in proportion to the lease payment within the expected service life of the asset. Above the fair value, the part above the fair value shall be deferred and amortized within the expected service life.
Four. Non-monetary transaction
In China, the book value of exchange assets plus relevant taxes and fees payable is taken as the book value of exchange assets, and no gains or losses are recognized; According to International Accounting Standards, all asset conversion transactions should be measured at fair value, unless the transaction is not commercial or the fair value of assets received and abandoned cannot be reliably measured. At this point, the book value of abandoned assets is taken as the cost of receiving assets. If the subject can reliably determine the fair value of receiving or abandoning assets, the fair value of abandoning assets shall be regarded as the cost of receiving assets, unless the cost of acquiring assets is more reliable.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) enterprise merger
In China, if it is a holding merger, it is measured by the book value of the merged party. In the case of holding merger, the problem of measuring the initial investment cost of long-term equity investment arises, so the difference between the investment cost and the "share" of the invested enterprise owned by the investing enterprise is treated as the equity investment difference: if the merger includes stock exchange merger, the purchase method (that is, measured by book value) or the equity method (that is, measured by fair value) can be adopted. In China capital market, almost all the actual merger cases have chosen the equity merger method; IAS stipulates that only the purchase method is allowed for the merger of all enterprises, and the use of equity combination method is strictly restricted, while FASB prohibits the use of equity combination method.
In the measurement of goodwill, China is the difference between the purchase cost and the share in the net assets of the purchased enterprise (unless a company purchases 100% shares, it is measured according to the difference in the fair value of the net assets obtained), while in the measurement of minority shareholders' rights and interests, China must be measured according to the historical cost; International accounting standards stipulate that it can be measured by fair value or historical cost.
The above differences caused by avoiding fair value also expose more and more contradictions in enterprise accounting. Taking non-monetary transactions as an example, because the book value of assets placed is to be measured, there may be many defects in actual accounting.
For example, a listed company in Hunan announced in April 2004 that the local state-owned assets investment and operation company agreed to help the listed company pay a consideration of 227 million yuan for the purchase of land use rights, and the company transferred all the accounts receivable of its sales subsidiary holding 98% of the shares to the state-owned company at a price of 65.438+92 billion yuan, and the difference was made up by the listed company in cash. The original book value of these accounts receivable was 268 million yuan, and the provision for bad debts was 654.32 million yuan.
Listed companies think that these are two independent businesses, land purchase and payment, and the accounting treatment is as follows: loan: land use right of 227 million yuan; Other payables are RMB 6,5438+RMB 92 million; Bank deposit is 35 million yuan; Loan: Other payables are RMB 65,438+RMB 92 million; Accounts receivable 6,5438 yuan+92 million yuan; The actual write-off of bad debts was RMB 76 million. At the same time, the excess bad debt reserve is transferred back: by: bad debt reserve of RMB 6.5438+RMB 0.09 million; Loans: accounts receivable 76 million yuan; The management cost is 33 million yuan. In order to be prudent, the company specifically asked the relevant state departments at the end of 2003. The responsible comrades of the department pointed out that this business belongs to debt restructuring, and the bad debt reserve transferred back should be included in the current capital reserve, and the accounting treatment is as follows:
Loan: land use right of 227 million yuan; Other payables are 6,543.8+0.92 billion yuan; Bank deposit is 35 million yuan; Other payables are 6,543.8+0.92 billion yuan; Bad debt reserve is 654.38+0.9 million yuan; Accounts receivable of 268 million yuan; The capital reserve is 33 million yuan; According to the responsible comrades of the department, the above business is still divided into two transactions, the first of which is consistent with the handling of listed companies. However, some accounting scholars and experts have put forward different opinions on this. They believe that these two businesses can be combined into one, belonging to asset replacement business and non-monetary transactions. According to the regulation that "when receivables are exchanged for one or more assets, the book value of receivables is taken as the book value of the exchanged assets, and if multiple assets are involved, the book value of the exchanged receivables is allocated according to the proportion of the fair value of other assets to the total fair value of all other assets exchanged", the accounting treatment is as follows:
Debit: land use right 65.438+94 million yuan bad debt reserve 65.438+90 million yuan loan: accounts receivable 268 million yuan bank deposit 35 million yuan. In essence, this is indeed a non-monetary transaction of creditor's rights for land. According to the current standards, the core idea of accounting treatment of non-monetary transactions is to measure the value of assets placed on the basis of their book value. However, corporate accounting ultimately takes the opinions of relevant state departments as the standard, and actually introduces the concept of measuring assets placed at fair value in disguise. The problem lies in the understanding of this kind of business, whether it is debt restructuring or non-monetary transactions. Different understanding will lead to different accounting treatment results. If non-monetary transactions are measured at fair value, the above problems will not occur, and the results of accounting treatment are the same for both businesses.
If, under the above circumstances, it is assumed that the state-owned assets investment and operation company or listed company has more than 230 million yuan for turnover and completes the transaction with the actual transferred funds, then the above transaction is not only divided into two businesses, but also the accounting treatment becomes very simple, and the company avoids non-monetary transactions, and the land use right can also be properly recorded according to the transaction price.
From the above analysis, it can be clearly seen that it is the general trend to introduce fair value into China's accounting standards framework. As far as the function of accounting is concerned, it is to objectively reflect information, and the main purpose of accounting improvement is to improve the quality of accounting information. This quality feature is "relevance, reliability and comparability" summarized in the American Financial Conceptual Framework (CF). Imagine that the real estate value of an enterprise can only be reflected by the original book value under the market background that the house price has risen by nearly 10 times. What is the relevance and comparability of such accounting statements? Of course, the existing accounting standards have indeed played a certain role in curbing profit manipulation and improving the quality of corporate profits; On the other hand, in order to circumvent these regulations, enterprises have increased transaction costs. Although this practice of using accounting standards to fight against accounting black holes has immediate effects, its cost is contrary to international financial reporting standards, and in fact it can't be stopped. On the surface, debt restructuring and non-monetary transactions have decreased rapidly, but in fact, due to the economic consequences of accounting standards, more economic behaviors are based not on market rules but on accounting rules, such as after-sale repurchase, debt restructuring is designed as asset (equity) transfer, and non-monetary transactions are broken down into several monetary transactions. Therefore, instead of "blocking", it is better to "sparse". We should not only curb profit manipulation (ensure the reliability of accounting information), but also keep convergence with international accounting standards (improve the relevance and comparability of accounting information). The contradiction between the two needs to be coordinated, which is mainly manifested in the non-dominant use and strict restriction of fair value. Sex and strict restrictions.
Yang Yuefen Cao Zhong