The International Debate of Business Combination in Public Sector: The Role of IPSAS 40

Abstract

Practice and Academy have recently involved in the accounting of business combination in the public sector representing a debated topic at national and international levels; in part, by reason of the reorganization action being aimed at rationalizing the public expenditure, on the other hand due to the logic (always in the key resource optimization) modification of territorial composition of territorial entities, as is happening in many countries with the merger of the municipalities. The contribution is based on a critical analysis of the content of IPSAS 40 providing all the approaches for accounting recognition of business combination in public sectors in order to assess whether IPSASB will determine a higher harmonization in this field. In this context, IPSASB has positively orientated the efforts towards the definition of an accepted accounting policy.

Keywords: IPSAS 40, Public Sector, Business Combination, Conceptual paper