Reflection of interest and other expenses on loans and borrowings in accounting (financial) statements: recommendations of state and non-state regulators

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, as the state regulator of accounting, annually discloses new aspects of improving interest and other expenses related to borrowing in accounting (financial) reporting forms, including by issuing annual recommendations to auditors and audit organizations on verifying the reliability of annual reports. Despite the apparent simplicity of reflecting interest on borrowed funds — either for expenses of the current period or in the value of an investment asset, practitioners do not have fewer questions over time. The non-governmental accounting regulator “Accounting Methodological Center” also in its recommendations sets out its position on the reflection of interest and other expenses mainly in connection with newly emerging types of contractual relations for the presentation of borrowed funds. When conducting research, we used such methods as analysis and synthesis, comparison, grouping method, analogy method, logical approach, systematic approach. As a result of the conducted research, this article, in particular, presents generalized requirements for the formation of information on interest and other expenses related to borrowing, depending on the purpose of use and form of borrowing, as well as part of cash flows from current (operating), investment and financial activities of reporting organizations. In addition, in this paper, proposals are made to improve the accounting standard for reflecting the costs associated with borrowing. The results of this study will be of interest to a wide range of readers studying various problems of modern Russian and foreign accounting, and can also be used in the educational process of higher educational institutions.