Immaterial Assets in the Hungarian Accounting System and Financial Statements

Abstract

The goal of this research was to examine the financial statements of the largest Hungarian firms to discover the level of intangible-related information they contain. Another objective was to assess whether the Hungarian accounting regulations support the disclosure of such information. We applied the measurement methodology presented by Ragini (2012). Our main conclusion is that the reporting culture of the Hungarian companies within the sample is determined by the mandatory minimum content prescribed by law. Voluntary disclosure of data is more characteristic of listed companies. We have also found that the companies comprising the sample tend to elaborate more on topics such as shareholders, the environment, or intangibles included in their balance sheets. However, they scored less in areas such as ‘research and development’, ‘market and customer’ and ‘strategy and competition’.