A PROPOSED new accounting standard for medium-sized businesses has been published by the Accounting Standards Board.

Chartered Accountants Ireland director of technical policy Aidan Lambe said the proposed new standards would bring a common global accounting language closer. “One of the holy grails of financial reporting is consistency and comparability across the globe,” he said.

The new standards also reduce the disclosure requirements for the majority of wholly-owned subsidiaries. Mr Lambe said the key areas in which the proposed accounting standards would impact Irish businesses included changes to how exchange rate contracts would be accounted for, the writing off of RD expenditure and the proposal that goodwill be written off over a finite period.

The new rules are the result of a six-year consultation period and are open for comment until April 2011. Mr Lambe said the new rules “are among the biggest changes in accounting standards for a generation”.

The proposed implementation date for the new standard is the accounting period beginning July 2013.