The Accounting Policies of Enterprises for Intangible Assets: The Basic Principles and Features of Formation

The article is aimed at examining the theoretical-practical bases of formation of accounting policy for intangible assets of enterprise, taking into account the conceptual basis of financial statements – either UAS (Ukrainian Accounting Standards) or IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). The analysis and generalization of the requirements of regulations, as well as scientific works of many scholars on understanding the essence of the concept of «accounting policy» were carried out. Two key directions of understanding of accounting policy by domestic scholars are allocated: the closer specified one (description of alternative solutions) and the wide one (disclosure of an additional array of information in addition to choosing from the permitted alternatives). The author’s own approach to understanding the accounting policy in terms of intangible assets is proposed: it is a description of the decisions chosen by the enterprise from a number of alternatives stipulated by the standards (UAS or IFRS), regarding the recognition, valuation, submission and disclosure of information about intangible assets, as well as other aspects deemed essential. The approaches of domestic scholars to identify the main elements of accounting policy related to intangible assets are considered. On the basis of the study of alternative requirements of IAS 38, a minimum set of elements of the enterprise’s accounting policy for intangible assets is proposed, as well as key differences in approaches to the preparation of accounting policies under the UAS compared to the IFRS are defined. The appropriateness of disclosure of tax aspects in accounting policy is analyzed. Approaches to improving accounting policy and ensuring its innovative nature through the presentation of independent decisions of the enterprise on disclosure of information about intangible assets in the broad sense of this concept are proposed. It is recommended to disclose information on the identification of classes of the implicit innovation-oriented assets, approaches to valuation and monitoring of these assets outside of traditional accounting methods, as well as disclosure channels for such assets.