Towards the final version of revenue recognition. The joint standard from Iasb and Fasb

It is known that revenue is typically the single largest item reported in a company’s income statement. Thus, FASB and IASB have now decided to prepare a joint standard on revenue recognition. The paper discusses the institution of the new standard on revenue recognition in the light of the notion of convergence as an important implication, and identi es an issue regarding the capability of such accounting procedures to re ect the complex nature of the revenue. In this paper a historical background of the development of the project of convergence between FASB and IASB is presented; then, the main differences and similarities in U.S. GAAP and IAS are analyzed. Finally the paper investigates the new joint standard on revenue recognition also with regard of the recent Exposure Draft for public consultation on the need for some changes in the standard itself given some dif culties it its application.