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

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