IAS 38 — Intangible Assets

Abstract

The increasing importance of intangible assets required a general review of accounting treatments since the introduction of the 4^th EU Directive¹³⁶. Intangible assets are part of the asset section of the 4^th EU Directive balance sheet but recording is only possible in the case of acquisition¹³⁷. The main difference between the 4th EU Directive and IAS 38 is that IAS 38 also allows the recording of self-generated intangibles and offers the revaluation method as a general alternative measurement method equal to historical cost accounting¹³⁸. In addition, IAS 38 distinguishes between intangibles with a definite and indefinite life¹³⁹. This reflects one of the main differences to traditional EU Directive accounting and is a result of the emerging number of new types of intangibles¹⁴⁰.