Impactos de las normas internacionales de información financiera en el régimen económico de las sociedades cooperativas

There is an underlying partnership agreement in cooperatives that makes use of accounting regulations to determine the results. This can indirectly lead to a modification in the organization that was originally planned. Therefore, we should start with accounting regulations when legislating on cooperatives, and more so nowadays, as we must bear in mind the current situation with regard to accounting regulations, which is characterized by international harmonization. Accounting regulations can no longer be considered a mere documentary appendix to the regulations governing corporations, which are conditioned by the latter. This paper therefore aims to identify the most important areas (as well as classifying share capital contributions as financial assets or liabilities) in the economic organization of cooperatives that can be affected by International Financial Reporting Standards (hereafter referred to as IFRS) as their criteria become part of Spain’s corporate and accounting code, beyond the obligatory cases where IFRS must be applied (consolidated accounts of listed companies). The purpose of this is to serve as a basis for future legislative reforms relating to cooperatives in order to improve their economic organization on the one hand, and on the other hand to adapt it to the aforementioned new corporate and accounting regulations resulting from their adaptation to the current European accounting regulations adopted by IFRS. In this regard, we must bear in mind the constitutional mandate to promote cooperatives by introducing suitable legislation.