The Accounting Treatment of Goodwill as Stipulated by IFRS 3

Abstract

The goodwill represents the future economic benefits arising from the assets that are not capable of being individually iden tified nor separately recognized and includes: the custom, the rights in the goodwill, the reputation of business product, the trademark and other intangible elements. Due to the different aspects of the elements that compose it, the assessment of the goodwill implies remarkable difficulties.The problem of recognising or not the goodwill in the asset of financial reports has generated the biggest controversies. The solutions presented in the international referential generated a reconciliation of the theoretical vision and of the accounting treatment of the goodwill offering more transparency to the operations of business combinations as regards the shareholders and social partners as well as the subsequent treatment of the expenses with this intangible asset on the financial results of the societies.The goodwill represents the future economic benefits arising from the assets that are not capable of being individually identified and separately recognized and includes: the custom, the rights in the goodwill, reputation of business product, the trademark and other intangible elements. Due to different aspects of the elements that compose it, the assessment of the goodwill implies remarkable difficulties.The problem that rises the most controversies is whether goodwill is really an asset in the full sense of the word. The specialists opinions are far of being considered convergent.