Técnicas para Plantear el Problema científico

The first Australian accounting standard issued relating specifically to intangible assets (albeit only to goodwill) was AAS 18 Accounting for Goodwill, which was issued in March 1984 to operate for accounting periods ending on or after 31 March 1985. Australian companies had previously adopted a wide variety of accounting treatments for goodwill before the introduction of AAS 18 (Wines and Ferguson, 1993). The standard required, among other things: (1) a mandatory amortisation of goodwill over the expected period of benefit but not exceeding 20 years on a

straight-line basis; (2) the balance of goodwill to be reviewed annually and written down to the extent that future economic benefits are no longer probable; and (3) prohibited the recognition of internally generated goodwill. Although the introduction of the goodwill standard increased the number of Australian companies systematically amortising goodwill, there was still a significant degree of non- compliance (Carnegie and Gibson, 1987).

ASRB 1013 Accounting for Goodwill was later introduced, which had statutory backing and applied to companies reporting in financial periods ending after 18 June 1988. This approved accounting standard however, had similar contents to the previous standard, AAS 18. These standards dichotomised intangible assets into unidentifiable and identifiable assets, with goodwill being defined as an unidentifiable asset. Both standards presumed separate recording for identifiable intangible assets, but were silent on the accounting treatment to be applied to such assets. As a result, the recognition of identifiable intangible assets was purely voluntary (Wyatt et al., 2001; Ritter and Wells, 2006).

The voluntary recognition and disclosure of identifiable intangible assets by Australian firms can be traced back to the early 1970s (Wines and Ferguson, 1993). However, the recognition and disclosure became increasingly common in the period surrounding the issue of AAS 18 in 1984 and ASRB 1013 in 1988. With the introduction of ASRB 1013, many companies sought to minimise the impact of the requirement for the amortisation of goodwill and this was achieved by recognising identifiable intangible assets, thereby reducing the amount that would otherwise have been recorded as goodwill. The AARF later issued an exposure draft, ED 49, in 1989 in an effort to develop an accounting standard on identifiable intangible assets. ED 49 advocated that recorded identifiable intangible assets be amortised to the profit and loss account over a finite period. However, this proposed standard was regarded as controversial and due to the lack of consensus on the subject at both national and international level, the AARF was forced to withdraw it in 1992 (Wines and Ferguson, 1993).

Hence, prior to 2005 there was no single standard governing the accounting treatment for intangible assets in Australia but, rather, there was a number of standards related to the treatment of intangible assets, which were AASB 1013 Accounting for Goodwill, AASB 1011 Accounting for Research and Development Costs, AASB 1015 Acquisitions of Assets, AASB 1021 Depreciation, AASB 1010 Recoverable Amount of Non-Current Assets and AASB 1041 Revaluation of Non- Current Assets. Figure 2.2 illustrates the time line for the adoption of standards related to intangible assets in Australia.

It is also important to note that because of the absence of a specific standard guiding the accounting for intangible assets, firms under this reporting regime had a wide discretion to recognise the identifiable intangible assets, both acquired and internally generated, at cost or value, and employed different accounting practices after initial recognition (Goodwin and Ahmed, 2006). Furthermore, during this period Australian firms had the option to revalue non-current assets upwards to fair value. Wyatt (2002) argues that revaluation was the accounting method used to bring internally generated intangible assets on to the balance sheet. These practices were in major contrast with the accounting practices allowed under the U.S. GAAP, that have adopted a rather restricted approach in the recognition of identifiable intangible assets. Interestingly, Ritter and Wells (2006) claim that despite the varying accounting practices there is no empirical evidence of widespread opportunistic management behaviour.

Concerns about the availability of reliable measures in relation to revalued assets and capitalisation of intangible assets are among major reasons for the U.S. GAAP to proscribe these practices generally (Wyatt, 2002). The FASB and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in fact, have maintained a strict immediate expense policy for most internal expenditures of an intangible nature including R&D costs.

Figure 2.2

The Adoption of Accounting Standards Relating To Intangible Assets in Australia

1983 AAS 13 Accounting for Research and Development Costs (March) 1984 AAS 18 Accounting for Goodwill (March)

1987 AASB 1011 Accounting for Research and Development Costs (May 29) 1988 ASRB 1013 Accounting for Goodwill (April)

1989 ED 49 Accounting for Identifiable Intangible Assets (August)

1991 AASB 1010 Accounting for the Revaluation of Non-Current Assets

1996 AASB 1013 Accounting for Goodwill (June 14) AAS 18 Accounting for Goodwill (June) 1997 AASB 1021 Depreciation (August 29)

AAS 4 Depreciation (August)

1999 AASB 1015 Acquisitions of Assets (November 5) AAS 21 Acquisitions of Assets (November)

AASB 1010 Recoverable Amount of Non-Current Assets (December) AAS 10 Recoverable Amount of Non-Current Assets (December) AASB 1041 Revaluation of Non-Current Assets (December) (AASB 1010 and AASB 1041 replace the previous AASB 1010)

Accounting Interpretation AI 1 Amortisation of Identifiable Intangible Assets (December)

2001 AASB 1041 Revaluation of Non-Current Assets

2005 AASB 138 Accounting for Intangible Assets

(Supersedes AAS 4/AASB 1021, AAS 10/AASB 1010, AAS 13/AASB 1011, AAS 18/ AASB 1013, AAS 21/AASB 1015 and AASB 1041)

For example, according to SFAS No.2 Accounting for R&D Costs, all R&D costs should be written off immediately at the time they are incurred. Since 1985, one exception to the immediate expense policy is software development costs which can be capitalised according to a ‘technical feasibility’ test under SFAS No. 86. Thus, it appears that during this period, while the recognition of internally generated intangible assets under the U.S. GAAP is limited to certain software development costs, there was no such limit under Australian GAAP. Another difference between these two accounting jurisdictions is that while Australian GAAP permitted the revaluation of identifiable intangible assets, this was not permitted under U.S. GAAP.

Furthermore, up until 2001, U.S. GAAP required identifiable intangible assets to be amortised over a maximum period of forty years, while there was no such limit under Australian GAAP. In June 2001, a new standard on intangible assets, SFAS No. 142 Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets was issued that also prohibits the recognition of internally generated identifiable intangible assets including internally generated goodwill.