The harmful accounting for intangibles: response to adherents of the status quo

Baruch Lev

Chapter 2 in Handbook on Intangibles, 2026, pp 23-36 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: My evidence-based opinion about the irrelevance of current financial report information to investors and managers, and on the role of the accounting for intangible investments in this decline of relevance, including the remedies needed to redress this sorry state of affairs were clearly laid out in my and others’ books, papers and social media. Like any other new, against-the-grain ideas, mine didn’t convince everyone. There are still quite a few adherents of the current accounting-for-intangibles status quo. In this chapter I respond to the main arguments of some of the leading voices supporting the continuation of the current accounting for intangible investments, in the hope of advancing the relevance of financial reports information. I end up by pointing out the real stumbling blocks to the needed changes in the accounting and financial reporting of intangibles.

Keywords: Intangible investments; Financial reporting relevance; Accounting standards; Reform resistance; Information usefulness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035306367
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