1.

Jelaskan kenapa standar principles-based membutuhkan sebuah conceptual

framework?
2. Kenapa IASB dan FASB membagi conceptual framework merupakan hal yang
penting?

Revisiting the conceptual framework

The FASB and IASB began a joint agenda project to revisit their conceptual
frameworks for financial accounting and reporting in 2002. Each board bases its
accounting standards decisions in large part on the foundation of objectives,
characteristics, definition, and criteria set forth in their existing conceptual
frameworks. The goals of the new project are to build on the two boards existing
frameworks by refining, updating, completing, and converging them into a common
framework that both Boards can use in developing new and revised accounting
standards. A common goal of the FASB and IASB, shared by their constituents, is for
their standards to be principles-based. To be principles-based, standards cannot be
a collection of conventions but rather must be rooted in fundamental concepts. For
standards on various issues to result in coherent financial accounting and reporting,
the fundamental concepts need to constitute a framework that is sound,
comprehensive, and internally consistent.
Without the guidance provided by an agreed-upon framework, standard setting
ends up being based on the individual concepts developed by each member of the
standard-setting body. Standard setting that is based on the personal conceptual
frameworks of individual standard setters can produce agreement on specific
standard-setting issues only when enough of those personal frameworks happen to
intersect on that issue. However, even those agreements may prove transitory
because, as the membership of the standard-setting body changes over time, the
mix of personal conceptual frameworks change as well. As a result, that standardsetting body may reach significantly different conclusions about similar (or even
identical) issues than it did previously, with standards not being consistent with one
another and past decisions not being indicative of future ones. That concerns is not
merely hypothetical: substantial difficulties in reaching agreement in its first
standards projects was a major reason that the original FASB members decided to
devote substantial effort to develop a conceptual framework.
The IASB framework is intended to assist not only standard setters but also
preparers of financial statements (in applying international financial reporting
standards and in dealing with topics on which standards have not yet been
developed), auditors (in forming opinions about financial statements), and users (in
interpreting information contained in financial statements). Those purposes also are
better served by concepts that are sound, comprehensive, and internally consistent.
(In contrast, the FASB Concepts Statements state that they do not justify changing

generally accepted accounting and reporting practices or interpreting existing

standards based on personal interpretations of the concepts, one of a number of
differences between the two frameworks.)
Another common goal of the FASB and IASB is to converge their standards. The
Boards have been pursuing a number of projects that are aimed at achieving shortterm convergence on specific issues, as well as several major projects that are
being conducted jointly or in tandem. Moreover, the Boards have aligned their
agendas more closely to achieve convergence in future standards. The Boards will
encounter difficulties converging their standards if they base their decisions on
different frameworks.