The Global Intangible Finance Tracker (GIFT™) 2018 provides an annual review of the world's intangible value. The report highlights the increasing importance of intangible assets in global enterprise value, the volatility of their values due to changes in investor sentiment, and the confusion caused by some intangible assets not appearing in balance sheets. The report also notes the phenomenon of 'undisclosed intangibles', which arises due to accounting standards not recognizing intangible assets unless there has been a transaction to support their value in the balance sheet. This means that many highly valuable intangible assets are not reflected in balance sheets, which is seen as bizarre by non-accounting managers. The report suggests that the Historical Cost Convention is a prudent measure to prevent creative accounting, but the ban on intangible assets appearing in balance sheets unless there has been a separate purchase for the asset in question or a fair value allocation of an acquisition purchase price means that many valuable intangible assets are not recognized.
