是资产减值还是会计信息失真外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 原文 Impairment of Assets or Impairment of Financial Information? Material Source: Author:Emily Giannini ABSTRACT This paper begins with overviews of the Statements of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 144 and No. 142 as they pertain to impairments. Subsequent to the overviews, a conceptual evaluation considers how the impairment standards are related to various components of the conceptual framework, including reliability, relevance, and various components within and related to these two characteristics. Incorporated into the discussion is SFAS No. 157 and current fair value measurements in accounting. Controversies surrounding SFAS No. 144 and No. 142 are discussed and companies that have incurred impairment losses or conduct impairment testing on a regular basis are presented. All components of this paper are directed to an analysis of the costs and benefits of impairment testing and the possible result of the trade-off. INTRODUCTION As stated in the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFAC) No. 1 (1978) , a primary objective of financial reporting is to, “ provide information that is useful to present and potential investors and creditors and other users in making rational investment, credit and similar decisions…in assessing the amounts, timing, and uncertainty of prospective cash receipts…” Further, “financial reporting should provide information about the economic resources of an enterprise, the claims to those resources…and the effects of transactions, events, and circumstances that change its resources and claims to those resources.” (FASB 1978, Page 5). When long-lived assets are impaired (the fair value of the asset is less than book value), the resources of a company have changed in value. Thus, it is considered important to inform external users, such as creditors and investors, of the change in financial information and to provide them with relevant information. As a result, asset