Accounting for Intangible Assets : An Analysis of IFRS and Non-IFRS Based Accounting Standards

Intangible Assets are the most important category of assets which help the organization in creating a competitive edge over others. Across the globe, there are several accounting standards, and the treatment of intangible assets varies from one another, and this in turn leads to diversity in the manner intangible assets are reported and disclosed. Due to this diversity, it is highly impossible to carry out cross-country comparison of intangible assets related information. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) made an effort to remove such diversity and bring uniformity in reporting and disclosure of intangible assets-related information. The present paper focuses on analyzing accounting of intangible assets in the Indian context. For the purpose of the study, data was collected from the secondary sources such as annual reports of 10 selected companies and accounting standards published by MCA. For analyzing the collected data, content analysis, reliability test, disclosure index and one sample t-test were used and the study found that all the selected companies were complying with IFRS-based accounting standards in relation to intangible assets in a significant manner