The reduced disclosure regime (RDR) is an initiative of the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) that allows Tier 2 reporting entities prepare less complex financial reporting statements from 1 July 2013.

You are required to read the article attached, sourced from The Sydney Morning Herald on 12 October, 2012 (http://www.smh.com.au/business/car-makers-in-race-to-reduce-disclosure-20121011-27ezd.html).Using this article below as a starting point of your research, you are required to research the answers to the following questions. Your wider research on the policy and its implementation is to be presented in ESSAY format, as an individual assignment of a maximum of 1500 words (+/- 10%).

Questions for wider research

1. What is differential reporting?

2. Why did the AASB seek to distinguish between Tier 1 and Tier 2 reporting entities?

3. Based on the AASB definition, which organisations are likely to adopt RDR and why?

4. What is meant by the term ‘publicly accountable' and how and why might it be interpreted in different ways by management?

5. What are the advantages and disadvantages for an organisation to adopt the RDR?

6. What might be the financial and non-financial consequences of adopting the RDR?

7. Is there a similar/corresponding International Accounting Standard(s)?

8. When International standards were first introduced, what was the original international response to IASB's with respect smaller organisations - for example did some countries decide to have two systems working in parallel - one for large international companies and then those domestic companies that were never going to look for international finance and thus the extra reporting was simply an additional cost.