Abstract:
Charities are becoming more highly regulated worldwide and yet they are subject to
diverse, country-specific,
financial reporting standards. New Zealand is a jurisdiction
that has treated all sectors alike in its approach to the financial regulation of charities,
whilst the United Kingdom has, for some time, separated the regulation of charities
from other entities. This paper provides a comparison of the histories of the evolution
of regulation for charity reporting in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The
current process of international harmonization in both jurisdictions is premised on the
principle that accounting conceptual frameworks should not be jurisdiction-specific,
but charities have proved to be an exception. We suggest in this study that this
exception is attributed to different drivers resulting in regulatory distinctions in two
otherwise similar jurisdictions. Without persisting in the maintenance of sectorneutrality,
the inevitable divergence increases the load on preparers, attesters, and
users and may lead to lower levels of accountability and transparency.
