Respondent lobbying on the proposed disclosure information of goodwill impairment test and assumption

Abstract: Goodwill accounting treatment has been a subject of heated debate for a long time in many countries around the world. Changing to international accounting standards and settings was much discussed in Sweden. International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) issued Exposure Drafts, which were related to goodwill accounting treatment in 2002. In this thesis, two respondents groups’ positions, regarding the disclosure information on goodwill impairment test, and assumption are examined by studying comment letters that submitted to the IASB. It is suggested that the two groups lobbied the proposal because the new standard has economic consequences. The result shows that, as hypothesized, non-preparer group supported more than the preparer group for disclosing variety information on goodwill impairment test and assumption. Furthermore, it would be interesting to see what kind of arguments from two different groups, and how they argue for their positions. The result is both groups used IASB framework are based on useful arguments to support their positions at the same extent, although the objects behind the lobbying activities are different from two groups.