The logic of pension accounting
回顾了养老金会计准则30多年的演变，从成本导向转向资产负债表导向，指出允许企业忽略或分摊养老金成本的做法正被淘汰，并强调原则导向的养老金会计应如实反映雇主、雇员和基金的权利与义务。
Abstract Accounting for pensions has been a problem for standard‐setters for over 30 years. Early attempts to develop accounting standards were based on a cost orientation and reflected funding considerations. More recently, a balance sheet focus has led to issues over identification and measurement of pension liabilities and assets. Accounting standards that permit enterprises to ignore, spread or segregate elements of pension cost, or to create artificial cost measures, are open to criticism and are gradually disappearing. The aim of a principle‐based pension accounting system will be to ‘tell it as it is’, fairly reflecting the rights and obligations of employers, employees and funding vehicles. This means, though, that these complex rights and obligations must be properly understood. By focusing on pension liabilities, this paper illustrates how accounting standards translate rights and obligations into numbers in financial statements.