Perceptions of Practitioners, Auditors, and Academics on IFRS Convergence in Indonesia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the perception of practitioners, auditors, and academics about important issues on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) convergence in Indonesia as well as the plan to fully adopt IFRS in Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the emerging countries with distinct features that could shed some lights on IFRS convergence issues. Total respondents of our study are 170 (consist of 43 practitioners, 50 auditors, and 77 academics). The authors find that the respondents are quite familiar with IFRS as well as IFRS convergence in Indonesia. There are several challenges in IFRS convergence in Indonesia, namely complexity to measure fair value, complexity of IFRS-based accounting standards, and tax and accounting standard differences. Regarding the plan to fully adopt IFRS, respondents in average agree that the most significant benefit of IFRS full adoption is IFRS create uniformity in global financial reporting. However, there are several obstacles: lack of education, understanding, and experience by preparers of financial reports with the use of IFRS based, coordination and collaboration among global regulators, and required changes in accounting standards. Majority of respondents do agree that Indonesia fully adopt IFRS, and they stated that it will take at least three to five years for Indonesia to fully adopt IFRS.