The trade-off between international accounting convergence and IFRS in-country adjustments

Abstract

The problem of reaching international accounting convergence has enticed voluminous research, and evidence suggests that adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or IFRS-based accounting models, per se, may be insufficient. Institutionalists underline the possibility of decoupling. This has motivated the preparation of this longitudinal and qualitative study using Portugal as an exemplar, to assess the perceptions of tax officials towards the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) model and, more particularly, the perceived need to adjust IFRS to different national contexts and cultural traditions. Interviews with nine tax officials were conducted at two strategic moments: in 2009, just before formal adoption of an IFRS-based model in Portugal, in force from 1 January 2010 onwards; and in 2017, one year after the IFRS model adopted had already undergone a second round of in-country adaptations. The results obtained in this study suggest high receptivity towards IFRS adjustments when applied to the Portuguese accounting system, despite some individuals surveyed acknowledged a negative impact on the convergence of national standards with IFRS. The perceived need to overcome important national constraints on the adoption of IFRS in Portugal appeared to overpower the pursuit of an ideology of de facto convergence, which is, arguably, compatible with the phenomenon of decoupling.