Towards the International Convergence of Accounting Standards: The Case of Business Combinations and Goodwill

Accounting for business combinations and for goodwill has profoundly\r\nchanged during the last ten years both in the US and in Europe, as a consequence\r\nof the common effort of the FASB and the IASB towards the international\r\nconvergence of accounting standards. The Business Combinations project\r\nhas been the first major project undertaken jointly by the accounting\r\nstandard setters and it has resulted in the issue of substantially converged accounting\r\nstandards with some remaining differences. The aim of this paper is\r\nto review and comment the evolution and the major changes occurred in accounting\r\nfor business combinations and for goodwill and their current status in\r\nthe light of the process of convergence of accounting standards on these crucial\r\neconomic transactions.