The re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China: A hegemonic analysis

This paper draws on Gramsci's concept of hegemony to examine and explain the circumstances leading to the re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China in the early 1980s. In particular, the paper attempts to understand the political and ideological influence upon the professionalisation process of the Chinese accountants. The paper not only highlights a major difference between the professionalisation process of the public accounting profession in China as compared to the West, but also the authoritative and dominant role assumed by the Chinese state in the whole societal set-up. Through effectively exercising its political and ideological leadership, the state successfully mobilised the Chinese accountants in the implementation of its economic-related agenda. The paper demonstrates that the state has clearly achieved hegemony within the accounting community, and further suggests that the state-accounting profession relationship could be likened to the father–son relationship as encompassed within the Confucian notion of wu lun.     

Transforming identities: Accounting professionals and the transition to motherhood

This paper investigates the relationship between the experience of motherhood and employment within the UK accounting profession, by examining the oral history narratives of a small group of accountants who have recently become mothers and returned to work. Drawing from contemporary theories on identity, it considers how individuals make sense of the different social identities of accountant and mother, and to what extent social, institutional and cultural factors shape and restrict the ways in which the self is experienced. It also explores the implications for both the self and the accounting profession of interconnections and juxtapositions between the ostensibly private sphere of the home and the public sphere of employment. It suggests that as the identities of mother and accountant are entwined, they undertake a process of redefinition and transformation of the self.     

The politics of tax accounting in the United States: evidence from the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997

The purpose of this study is to utilize prior research in US Congressional politics, the accounting/state relationship, and corporate political activity to analyze corporations' political activities during the development and passage of the United States' Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. Our study provides evidence consistent with the notion that large corporations exercise considerable political power during the state's formulation of new tax accounting laws. These findings lead us to question the applicability of a strict pluralist model in accounting policy research and have implications for future research in corporate political activity, corporate tax accounting, and the political economy of accounting.     

Accounting Meets Politics: Theoretical Interpretation of Key Events (1940–2003) of the Accounting Profession in Australia

This paper examines some key developments in the Australian accounting profession and the changing nature of the authoritative influence of that profession on accounting and auditing activities. The purpose of this investigation is to demonstrate the shift in power between the political constituent (the government) and the accounting profession. The paper attempts to demonstrate how the corporatist view can help us understand the social nature of accounting and how the accounting profession can gain a greater awareness of this reality .     

An examination of the political salience of corporate tax avoidance: A case study of the Tax Justice Network

Corporate tax avoidance (CTA) has become a high profile issue despite being a complex area of accounting practice. One reason for this has been the civil society campaign opposing tax avoidance. The paper provides a case study of one key civil society actor: the Tax Justice Network (TJN). Existing accounting analysis offers little to explain how some accounting issues acquire political attention and media coverage. To address this, the concept of political salience is introduced into accounting analysis – understood as the creation of focal points in campaigns – to consider how the TJN contributed to the political profile of CTA.     

论纳税人概念的完善

目前的纳税人概念是我国财政学领域多年来按照国家分配论界定税收的产物,是税收法律领域长期按照权力关系说定性税收法律关系的结果。在深化财政税收体制改革、构建公共财政的基本框架,建设法治国家、推进强制型税务行政到服务型税务行政的转变、日益重视纳税人权利保护的今天,这一概念已经不合时宜,应予修改和完善。     

Commercialism and Its Impact on the Integrity of Professional Tax Services in the United States

In this paper I rely on prior accounting research on professionalism as a basis from which to analyse recent developments in the commercialization of the United States public accounting profession. Using two examples, one concerning the pricing of tax services and the other concerning the limited use of tax advice, I illustrate how a focus on commercialism deteriorates certified public accountants’ fiduciary relationships with tax clients and calls into question their fundamental functionalist claims of professionalism.     

Accounting and the Economic Reforms in New Zealand: A Study of the State/Profession Relationship

This paper examines some aspects of the developing relationship between the state and the accounting profession in New Zealand focusing on a period when a major programme of economic reform was implemented. The paper suggests that accounting facilitated the macro-micro interface by providing the link between the set of values highlighted through the reform process and the internal workings of organisations while benefiting from the involvement in the reform process. It also points out that the ideological shift and the associated values entrenched in the reform programme provided the environment that motivated and enabled the profession to introduce significant strategic and structural changes. Through the reform process, the accounting profession in New Zealand has changed from the traditional ideal type of established profession to a profession that can adapt to a changing environment. This strategy suggests the emergence of the accounting profession as a new group of "organic intellectuals", that is responsive to the needs of its members and the ever changing surroundings.     

An Investigation of Some Factors Affecting Taxpayer Non-compliance

A growing concern in almost every nation today is the amount of ‘tax gap’ (i.e. the difference between the taxes actually paid and what would be paid if all taxpayers filed complete and accurate returns and paid all the taxes they owe). Because the tax gap is often quite substantial, the problem of taxpayer non-compliance is one that requires careful scrutiny. This article addresses the problem of taxpayer non-compliance in an international context. The article briefly presents three of the main factors said to affect taxpayer non-compliance (rate structure, tax complexity, and control system). Next some estimates of the extent of non-compliance in seven countries (Sweden, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Italy and the United States) are reported and an examination made of the three factors in each country's tax system. It concludes with a discussion of how each factor analysed affects taxpayer compliance.     

The origins of modern accounting in Brazil: Influences leading to the adoption of IFRS

Despite the increasing importance of Brazil, there has been little documentation of how accounting developed and about the significant formative influences involved. This paper explores the significant influences on Brazilian accounting and the path to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Several important influences are emphasized: the equity theory of the Italian school of accounting in the early 20th century; the birth of the Brazilian accounting profession in 1931 and the certified accountants association in 1946; the impact of US trade and American accounting in the 1950s; and the high rates of inflation that occurred from the beginning of the 1960s. Modern Brazilian accounting had its beginning in the 1970s with the development of the stock market, the reforms of the financial system, and the decrease of tax influences on accounting. The globalization process and the need for Brazilian accounting to converge with international accounting led to the decision to adopt IFRS in 2007.     

如何有效保护纳税评估中的纳税人权利

纳税评估对纳税人来说具有一定的强制性,我国相关法律规定了纳税人必须承担的单方面义务,却并未规定对纳税人权利的保护。本文介绍了国外纳税约谈制度中的纳税人权利,总结了我国在纳税评估中对纳税人权利保护的不足,并就如何对纳税评估中的纳税人权利进行有效保护提出了建议。     

新个人所得税法对扣纳双方的影响及应对——基于扣缴人义务及纳税人行为视角

新个人所得税法在实践中的运行效果取决于征纳双方在税收征管过程中的耦合作用。一方面,作为联系税务机关与纳税人的中介与桥梁,扣缴人在个税预扣预缴及汇算清缴方面发挥着重要作用;另一方面,税制结构变化与缴税申报模式转变对纳税人影响深远。在新个人所得税下,扣缴人的扣缴清缴合规、沟通保密及判定审查等义务均有不同程度的增加、拓展或提升。而纳税人的缴税申报、现金管理及税收规避等行为更易于引致税务管控及稽查。落实应对建议有助于促使扣纳双方在税务合规的框架内发挥正向合力作用,凭借税收法治助力个税财政收入的实现。     

Taxing audit markets and reputation: An examination of the U.S. tax shelter controversy

From 2002 to 2007, the nation's largest CPA firms faced allegations of illegal activity related to the sale of tax shelters: EY, KPMG and PwC paid fines; KPMG was investigated by a federal grand jury; and EY faced a criminal inquiry. These shelter events occurred shortly after the 2002 collapse of Arthur Andersen, when policy makers were concerned about audit market concentration. This is the first paper to provide a chronological summary of how the tax shelter controversy started and ended. We investigate the stock market reaction to tax shelter news developments between 2003 and 2005 to make inferences about the market's view of audit competition and CPA firm reputation. Our results are consistent with market concern over large audit firm concentration, evidenced by large negative returns for clients of all audit providers upon the KPMG grand jury investigation announcement. We also find that tax shelter activities impact both the reputation of the accounting profession and the individual CPA firms marketing tax shelter products.     

Unraveling the political budget cycle nexus in Greece

This paper studies whether the Greek budget deficit is systematically affected by changes of government in the context of two political parties alternating in office. We advance the existing literature by constructing a tax evasion variable specific to the Greek economy and incorporating into our models. Testing the impact of each party upon the budget deficit during election and non-election years in the presence of tax evasion, we find a strong and persistent relationship between them independently of party political ideology. We assert that our finding constitutes a stylized fact of the Greek drama. Our results suggest that tax evasion together with the incident of two political parties alternating in office have tended to exacerbate the Greek government budget deficit accounting for about half the variation in it over the period examined. Moreover, GDP growth is found to exert a mitigating and permanent effect on budget deficit fluctuation.     

税务工作中纳税人权益保护存在的问题及改进建议

在现代法治框架内,针对基层税务工作中纳税人权益保护的现状,本文提出应进一步转变观念,在保障纳税人基本权利的基础上,重视正当程序权的界定和保障,强化外部监督机制,完善调控措施,确保纳税人合法权益得到应有的保护。     

Organising the profession: A theoretical and historical examination of the development of the major accountancy bodies in the U.K.

The paper is concerned with the organisation of the accountancy profession in the U.K. In the first part a theoretical framework for understanding the emergence, development and role of accountancy bodies is advanced. By including a consideration of professionalisation as well as an examination of the institutions of the market and the state, this framework provides a perspective for understanding professional associations as political bodies developed to defend the interests and preserve the scarcity of their members' labour. In the second part of the paper the history of the professional bodies is traced, focusing upon competition between the major associations as well as the economic and political contexts of their emergence, merger and failed integration. In conclusion, some speculations upon the future prospects of these bodies are entertained.     

Importing accounting: the case of Trinidad and Tobago

In the period immediately following its achieving independence, Trinidad and Tobago switched from a pattern of importing British professional accountants to one of importing British professional qualifications. It was also in this period that the first professional accounting association appeared: that is, eighty years after such bodies emerged in Britain and her settler colonies. This paper seeks to explain why the achievement of political independence in Trinidad and Tobago (and perhaps in some other British non-settler colonies) signified a critical turning point in the development of a local accounting profession. The paper also explores how the history of importing accounting impacted on the contemporary organization of the profession in Trinidad and Tobago.     

The effects of personality traits on digital transformation: Evidence from German tax consulting

Digitization is said to strongly disrupt business and professional life. Especially tax consulting has aroused public interest in this respect. Frey and Osborne (2017) even go so far as to predict that tax consulting will become obsolete. Although these statements are misleading without further interpretation, there is no denying the fact that some change in the accounting and tax profession is inevitable. In Germany, however, business digitization currently does not seem to be urgently necessary in the tax consulting field since this profession is protected by law from competition. Thus, by examining the digitization efforts of German tax consultants we are able to exclude almost all effects of outside pressure and therefore take a look at intrinsic motivation. This study focuses on psychological factors and explores the relationship between tax consultants' Big-Five personality and their level of digitization. Personality is measured using the ten-item Big-Five inventory provided by Rammstedt and John (2007). We develop a digital maturity model based on 20 questions relating to digitization in business and tax consulting. After carrying out a factor analysis, five factors are extracted. To interpret our results, we develop two business model transformation indices as well as an overall digitization index. Our analysis is based on a survey of 968 members of the chamber of tax consultants (Steuerberaterkammer) in Munich, Germany. We are able to show that tax consultants scoring high on extraversion and openness to experience and low on neuroticism exhibit a higher level of digitization. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study to discuss intrinsic motivation and digitization in an accounting context. Moreover, an index for digitization as a whole and two business model transformation indices are provided, shedding light upon a hard-to-grasp phenomenon.     

Tax morale and public spending inefficiency

Tax evasion is a widespread phenomenon and encouraging tax compliance is an important and debated policy issue. Many studies have shown that tax cheating has to be attributed to a considerable extent to the tax morale of taxpayers. The aim of the present paper is to shed light on the relationship between the taxpayer and the public sector; specifically, we investigate whether public spending inefficiency shapes individual tax morale. Combining data from Italian municipalities’ balance sheets with individual data from a properly designed survey on tax morale, we find that the attitude towards paying taxes is better when resources are spent more efficiently. This evidence seems not to be driven by some confounding factor at the municipality level or by spatial sorting of citizens and proves robust to accounting for alternative measures of both inefficiency and tax morale. We also find that the negative effect of inefficiency is larger if the level of public spending is lower and/or the degree of fiscal autonomy is higher.     

Reporting of book-tax differences for financial and tax purposes: A case study

Recent events in financial and tax accounting have brought the issue of financial accounting for tax expenses to the forefront of both the accounting profession and academia. Complexities abound on both sides, from ASC 740/FAS 109 and ASC 740-10/FIN 48 issues on the financial accounting side to the Schedule M-3 and Schedule UTP reporting requirements on the tax side. This complexity has created a vacuum in accounting curricula, as bits and pieces of the total puzzle are covered in the intermediate accounting and tax courses, without a comprehensive, integrated review in one place.