Finance professionals are dependent on accounting information provided in annual reports. Companies located in over 144 countries base the preparation of their annual reports on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This widespread adoption of IFRS has been supported by the assertion that it is an important means of enhancing comparability of financial statements across countries. IFRS are developed in English and translated into 48 languages. Importantly, it is mainly assumed that all translated IFRS convey the same consistent information and that comparability of financial information is not compromised when different languages are used. However, we show in this short communication that differences exist between the IFRS language versions. Our discussion on relevant linguistic effects on the interpretation and application of IFRS helps future research to systematically analyze why equally qualified professionals exercise their professional judgments differently.

财务专业人员依赖于年度报告中提供的会计信息。遍布144个国家/地区的公司以国际财务报告准则（IFRS）为基础编写年度报告。认为这是加强各国财务报表可比性的重要手段，支持了国际财务报告准则的广泛采用。IFRS以英文开发，并已翻译成48种语言。重要的是，主要假设所有已翻译的IFRS都传达相同的一致信息，并且在使用不同语言时不会损害财务信息的可比性。但是，我们在这段简短的交流中表明，IFRS语言版本之间存在差异。