The costs and benefits of IFRS implementation in the UK and Italy Alison Fox and Gwen Hannah School of Business, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK Christine Helliar School of Commerce, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, and Monica Veneziani Department of Accounting, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the opinions of national stakeholders on the costs and benefits of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation and to determine whether countries with disparate social, economical and political backgrounds have different experiences when complying with IFRS. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were conducted with preparers, users and auditors of annual reports and accounting regulators in the UK (including Ireland) and Italy. Findings – There were some differences in the experiences of IFRS implementation between stakeholders from different countries. However, there was widespread agreement that costs exceeded the benefits of reporting under the new standards. Further it is recognised that international standard-setters have a large set of stakeholder views to manage and it is therefore important that standard-setters are aware of the costs and benefits of their accounting requirements. Originality/value – This analysis is useful for companies that have not already adopted IFRS. It explains the differences and similarities of the costs and benefits of IFRS implementation from an Anglo-Saxon and an EU continental perspective. Keywords IFRS, Costs and benefits, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Stakeholder theory, Costs, Financial reporting Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction The application of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to the consolidated financial statements of publicly traded EU companies in 2005 was followed, in 2007, by companies listed on secondary capital markets (such as the AIM in the UK). The next stage in the IFRS implementation process includes the application of IFRS to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the forthcoming issue of four new IFRS relating to hedge accounting, leases, revenue recognition and insurance contracts. With IFRS continually adapting and changing, an analysis of the IFRS implementation experiences of larger listed companies is useful to assess whether stakeholders from different cultures and legal traditions have different experiences of IFRS implementation. This paper considers a country to be a stakeholder in the international standard-setting process; using stakeholder theory, it investigates how the costs and benefits of IFRS implementation have impacted on different national stakeholder The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0967-5426.htm Journal of Applied Accounting Research Vol. 14 No. 1, 2013 pp. 86-101 r Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0967-5426 DOI 10.1108/09675421311282568 The authors would like to thank the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland for the provision of grant funding for this research. M. Veneziani contributed to one third of this paper. 86 JAAR 14,1