What are the International Accounting Standards?

International Accounting Standards mandated how various accounting transactions were to be recorded and reported in an organization's financial statements. Their intent was to reduce differences in the accounting for transactions and financial statement presentation around the world, which in turn could improve the investment climate.

The standards were promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Committee and were issued from 1973 to 2001. The standards were no longer released after that committee was disbanded, resulting in a set of 41 standards covering such topics as financial statement presentation, inventories, and agriculture. The committee's replacement is the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which now issues International Financial Reporting Standards. The IASB has adopted all of the International Accounting Standards.

GAAP vs. IAS

In the United States, entities follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), rather than the International Accounting Standards. The GAAP accounting framework is much more rules-based than IAS, which is more principles-based. This means that GAAP is several times larger than IAS, and delves into significantly more detail in some areas of accounting.