재무성과보고의 개선에 대한 고찰

Reporting Financial Performance: Problems and New Standards

This paper is to identify the problems in reporting financial performance and to make the suggestions for the improvement of performance reporting. While there are several definitions of income in the accounting literature, two notions are used predominantly; the net income or profit which is reported in an income statement and the comprehensive income which is measured by the changes in net assets other than those resulting from transactions with owners. In this paper, financial performance is to refer the comprehensive income. There are three different ways in which financial performance is to be reported, namely in a statement of changes in equity, in a second performance statement, or in an expanded income statement. While a statement of changes in equity reconciles opening and ending balances of equity and explains how the amounts in the income statement and elsewhere in the financial statements relate to each other, it includes the items not representing financial performance and there is a risk that the items of financial performance in the statement is either misunderstood or overlooked. If all financial performance is to be reported in a statement of financial performance, two options are available; one is the second performance statement approach utilizing two statements and the other is the expanded income statement approach utilizing a single statement. Accounting Standards Board in United Kingdom adopted the second performance statement approach, while F ASB in U. S. A. allowed the choice among three alternatives. International Accounting Standards make it possible to select between a statement of changes in equity and a second performance statement. Previous researches were diverse on the components of financial performance to be reported. AAA report of 1997 suggested the classification of persistent (permanent) and transitory (temporary) components, while the Jenkins Committee (1994) of AICPA recommended the classification of core and noncore-financing categories. F ASB report of 1998 advocated three categories; operating activities, financing activities and other gains or losses. There are significant similarities between UK, USA and International accounting standards on reporting financial performance such as all require all-inclusive basis on the reporting and all permit or require some items of financial performance be reported outside of the income statement. However, there are significant differences between them; a) the statement in which other comprehensive income items reported, b) preparation of a statement of changes in equity, c) classification criteria for other comprehensive income items, d) recycling of other comprehensive income items. Existing problems in reporting financial performance are a) exclusion of relevant items from the statement of financial performance such as other comprehensive income items, b) inclusion of inappropriate items within financial performance and c) inappropriate classification bases such as realization. Also following problems are identified; a) unclear classification between operating activities and other activities, b) lack of clear criteria on discontinued operations and no classification between continuing and discontinued operations, c) requiring tax allocation to ordinary income, d) complexity due to the disclosure of small operating expense items. In order to ameliorate the reporting of financial performance in Korea, this paper suggests following measures; a) all financial performance is to be reported in a single statement of financial performance, b) the categories to be reported in the statement are operating activities, financing activities and other gains and losses, c) the recycling of other comprehensive income items is prohibited with some exceptions, d) extraordinary items are to be reported in the relevant categories and material items such as exceptional ones are to be separately disclosed In the relevant category , e) continuing a