Das Stichtagsprinzip im Jahresabschluss nach HGB, IFRS, UK GAAP und US GAAP (English shop)

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The German accounting law, in accordance with European requirements, contains within its general valuation principles an explicit balance sheet date principle (Stichtagsprinzip) which, alongside its purely periodisation function, serves above all to reduce discretionary latitude as part of its objectification function. By contrast, the Anglo-Saxon accounting standards IFRS, UK GAAP and US GAAP contain no such explicit balance sheet date principle. The analyses of the international accounting rules under IFRS, UK GAAP and US GAAP carried out in this study have shown that the Anglo-Saxon accounting standards, too, substantively possess a balance sheet date principle, albeit one anchored in numerous individual provisions. Precisely when and which circumstances are to be recognised is not governed by an overarching balance sheet date principle, but by individual provisions in the respective standards. This does indeed give rise to differing rules depending on the circumstances at issue. Under German law, the balance sheet date principle can be derived from the business management model of total profit (Totalerfolg). In IFRS financial statements, there is no balance sheet date principle derived from the total period. Rather, the effect of the balance sheet date principle is shaped by the overriding principle of the true and fair view and by the matching principle, so that the periodisation function gains considerably in importance compared with German law. Analogously, the examination of the balance sheet date principle under UK GAAP revealed that better knowledge obtained after the balance sheet date and actual values objectified by the market are recognised within the objectification function only where they do not conflict with the periodisation function.