The impact of new financial reporting standards on charities in New Zealand

Abstract or Summary

The whole paper is based on the impact of the new financial reporting requirements on charities in New Zealand issued by the External Reporting Board (XRB). The new reporting requirements came into effect on 1st April 2015. The compliance with the new reporting standards which is called generally accepted accounting practice (GAAP) is mandatory for all the registered charities in New Zealand. According to new reporting standards, charities are required to prepare general purpose financial reports (GPFR), which is further followed by the Tier system. The research is based on the semi-structured interview methods and two local (Waikato) charities have been interviewed. The research also focuses on the historical criticism and the current literature of charity accounting. Semi-structured interviews helped the researchers to go through the deep insights of the topic. Thematic analysis has been carried out for the findings and conclusions. It has been concluded in this research that the new reporting standards have significantly increased the accountability of the charities. However, there are few of the charities who are non-compliance with the new reporting standards.