This textbook is a development of Financial Reporting by Alexander and Britton, and is designed to meet the emerging demand for coverage of international accounting standards (IASs) and the globalization of accounting in advanced courses. It is predicated on an IAS framework but the European directives, especially as regards detailed formats having no direct equivalent in IASs, are discussed in detail. The European context and, in the case of important markets, the national context is recognised and contrasted with the international approach. Important non-European influences, especially those from the US, are also included in order to provide a genuinely wide-ranging appreciation of the implications of accounting internationalism. Part 1 contains coverage of the theoretical underpinnings of financial reporting in an international context. It also describes the international, European and domestic regulatory framework of accounting. Part 2 starts by analysing the legal background of the concept of capital and profit.