Suchergebnisse

Abstract
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper focusing on the interpretations issued by different Portuguese courts concerning the application of the accrual principle established in the Corporate Income Tax Code.
This paper uses a database of the Portuguese tax courts' decisions and employs a case law-based research methodology to address the following question: under which circumstances the principle of justice may affect the strict application of the accrual principle? After collecting twenty-four legal decisions related to the application of the accrual principle outlined in tax law, this paper summarises eleven, grouping them according to the different issues under dispute. This analysis also includes the confrontation of the assumptions used by the tax authority and the claims of the taxpayers, identifying and discussing the legal arguments to override the strict application of the accrual principle.
The main conclusion is that Portuguese courts may summon the principle of justice in taxation when taxpayers violate the accrual principle, in order to prevent unfair corrections to taxable income performed in tax audits. This paper found that the tax authority typically demands a rigid use of the accrual principle while the taxpayers often argue for a more flexible application. This last perspective has been adopted by the tax courts in certain circumstances, in particular when taxable income transfer was not motivated by tax avoidance.

This investigation tries to evaluate the principle of the transactions or economic facts accrual of the Autonomous Decentralized Municipal Government (DMG) in Ambato. Given the non-experimental nature of this article, the data was collected through surveys and interviews applied to the personnel of the financial department, in addition to the regulations, texts and narratives revision. The results show that the DMG Municipal in Ambato does not have instruments to evaluate the execution of the budgets under the accrual criteria, therefore, it cannot be specified if the information reflected in the financial statements really presents the economic results achieved. Based on the foregoing, it is considered that the design and implementation of efficiency, effectiveness and effectiveness indicators are relevant for decision-making, since knowing the degree of compliance and fulfillment of the planned activities will improve the quality of public management ; Esta investigación pretende evaluar el principio del devengado de las transacciones o hechos económicos del Gobierno Autónomo Descentralizado (GAD) Municipal de Ambato. Dada la naturaleza no experimental de este artículo, los datos se recogieron a través de encuestas y entrevistas aplicadas al personal del departamento financiero, además de la revisión de la normativa, textos y narrativas. Los resultados muestran que el GAD Municipal Ambato no cuenta con instrumentos para evaluar la ejecución de los presupuestos bajo el criterio de devengo, por lo que no se puede precisar si la información reflejada en los estados financieros presenta realmente los resultados económicos conseguidos. Por lo expuesto, se considera que el diseño e implementación de indicadores de eficiencia, eficacia y efectividad resultan pertinentes para la toma de decisiones, ya que conocer el grado de consecusión y cumplimiento de las actividades planificadas permitirá mejorar la calidad de la gestión pública.

This paper briefly outlines the significant issues that occur during the implementation of the accrual principle accounting in the public sector in the context of the reform of accounting of public finance in the Czech Republic. The reform mostly regards government organizational units, selfgoverning territorial units and allowance organizations. The objective of the paper is to describe the transformation process from state accounting to accrual principle accounting in the Czech Republic and to identify the main problems associated with the introduction of accrual principle. Authors summarize these key problems with the use of questionnaire survey results at the municipal level in the Czech Republic. According to the research presented in this paper, the ongoing reform has not provided the intended transparency of accounting in selected entities and these tend to have an impression of their efforts being wasted by doing unnecessary work. Drawing on the above facts, approaches to the public finance accounting reform by central authorities and municipalities are different. However, we can say that the reform was launched to improve the situation of users of financial statements and had been needed for many years because public sector accounting regulations were incomplete and non-uniform.

Although modernization of governmental accounting has led to the implementation of accrual financial reporting, budgets in most continental european countries, including spain, continue to be based on cash or modified cash methods. Consequently, cash-based and accrual- based financial information coexist. this may create problems for the full implementation of accrual financial statements. this paper analyzes the differences in practice between the results disclosed in financial and budgetary statements under both bases of accounting in order to identify to what extent accrual accounting has been implemented and to verify whether budgetary and accrual- based financial figures are significantly different. the research findings show that there is a high correlation between the current budgetary result and the economic result and, therefore, that in practice the accrual principle has not been implemented effectively.

This paper briefly outlines the actual situation of accounting reform of public finance. Nowadays, most countries use the accrual principle in various stages of development to ensure the reliability and accuracy of output data and improve the performance of public sector. The paper should identify some main problems in the implementation of accrual basis in accounting at the municipal level in the Czech Republic and compare with Slovak municipalities. Aim of the research is to present outcomes of analysis focused on currently discussed topics which are related to introducing the accrual principle into accounting of local government, especially small municipalities. First part of the paper summarize current situation, the second part discuss the benefits of accounting reform process and quality accounting information for public finance and performance measurements in this area. Finally the paper includes main findings from the questionnaire survey. © 2016, Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest. All rights reserved.

The regulation of Swedish municipal accounting has undergone fundamental changes over recent decades. Municipal accounting became regulated by law the 1st of January, 1998, after having been merely voluntarily regulated in the past. In accordance with the legislation, a standard-setting body was formed, with responsibility for development and interpretation of generally accepted accounting principles for municipal accounting. Important aims of the legislation and reform were to suppress 'creative' accounting and to increase the level of harmonisation and comparability. Using the lens of positive accounting theory as well as institutional theory, this paper describes and explains the impact of the legislation and standard setting in the Swedish municipal sector. We have used a triangulation approach, collecting data through a survey, documentary study and interviews. The overall results show that the reform has had a very limited impact on accounting practice. Compliance with accounting standards and legislation was in general poor. This result is in line with the assumptions of positive accounting theory. However, the study also shows that there are differences among the preparers. The supposition, suggested by institutional theory, that large municipalities should produce better accounting information (i.e. more in line with generally accepted accounting principles) than the municipalities in general, could not be rejected. Weak audit quality seems to be another important factor that explains the poor compliance with accounting standards.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of full accrual accounting on the Italian public universities and, in this context, how some technical-accounting problems typical of public sector (recognition and valuation issues) have been addressed. An additional purpose investigated in this paper is the role of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) in helping to overcome these technical-accounting issues, for the case under examination.Design/methodology/approach– The paper involves studying whether, and to what degree, some of the accounting choices made by the universities complied with the principles of full accrual accounting for several specific accounting registrations characterised by the presence of recognition and valuation issues. During this investigation, the paper also analyses whether the universities followed the accounting rules set out by the IPSAS Board.Findings– The findings highlight that, in general, there is a low degree of compliance with full accrual accounting principles and they also revealed that IPSASs do not provide any detailed guidelines that can help universities in overcoming the recognition and valuation problems typical of the public sector.Originality/value– The analysis presented in the paper confirms the findings of previous literature identifying a low level of compliance to full accrual accounting principles. This research shed light also on the longstanding debate about the role of IPSASs in promoting full accrual accounting in the public sector, revealing the scarce contribution of IPSASs to this process.

Recentna financijska i gospodarska kriza intenzivirala je izazove s kojima se države suočavaju prilikom poboljšavanja informacija koje treba osigurati računovodstvo javnog sektora. Kriza je pokazala da računovodstvo temeljeno na obračunskom načelu daje transparentniji i potpuniji pregled poslovnih aktivnosti i imovine od računovodstva temeljenog na novčanom načelu. U radu se analiziraju i uspoređuju računovodstveni sustavi Slovenije i Hrvatske kako bi se ocijenili uvjeti za dobivanje transparentnih i menadžmentu korisnijih informacija te na napredak u primjeni obračunskog načela u budžetiranju. Pokazuje se da je planiranje i izvršavanje državnih proračuna (proračunsko računovodstvo), bez obzira na fazu u primjeni obračunskog načela u nacionalnim zakonodavstvima o javnom računovodstvu, i dalje zasnovano na novčanom načelu. ; The recent financial and economic crisis has intensified the ongoing challenge countries have been facing to improve the information served by public accounting. The crisis has revealed that accounting based on the accrual principle provides a more transparent and complete overview of business activities and assets than accounting based on the cash principle. The paper analyses and compares accounting systems in Slovenia and Croatia in order to assess the conditions for transparent and management-oriented financial information and the progress of implementation of the accrual principle in budgeting. It reveals that, regardless of the stage of accrual implementation in national accounting legislation, the planning and execution of state budgets (that is, budgetary accounting) is still based on the cash principle.

AbstractIn March 2013, the EC started a project aimed at harmonizing accrual-based public sector accounting systems through a set of harmonized accrual-based public sector accounting standards. The entire project is based on the assumption that the "superiority of the accruals principle, whether for macro or micro fiscal monitoring, is indisputable" (

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Part I: The Producers' Perspective -- Chapter 2: Reshaping the Application of Accrual Accounting Principles and Postulations to Fit the Context of Public Sector Entities -- Chapter 3: Towards A Practice-Relevant Holistic Accounting Approach for Governmental Capital Assets: An Alternative Reporting Model for the NPM Practices -- Chapter 4: Scope of General Purpose Financial Reporting: An Accountability Perspective -- Chapter 5: A Sustainable Accounting Approach for Reporting on Long-Term Fiscal Sustainability -- Part II: The Users' Perspective -- Chapter 6: A Suggested Dynamic Model for Making Public Sector Accrual Accounting and Financial Reporting More User Practice-Relevant: Using Practice-Oriented Co-Design Approach -- Chapter 7: Accounting and Politicians: A Theory of Accounting Information Usefulness. Chapter 8: Conclusion. .

Public accounting systems differ among countries so the reform towards harmonization is needed especially for EU Member Countries. The transition from cash-based to accrual-based accounting is necessary in order to provide the wide scope of relevant information to the internal and external users. The objectives of the paper are: to examine the level of conversance with IPSAS (International Public Sector Accounting Standards) among public sector accountants in Croatia, to outline the potential benefits and improvements of accrual principle application, and to determine the implication of increased effectiveness and efficiency of the administrations' actions on greater transparency of financial statements. Empirical research is based on survey addressed to the accountants employed by local government. The findings suggest that accrual principle application in Croatian public sector accounting would lead to the increase of effectiveness and efficiency of the public sector and eventually to the higher level of transparency.

The move from cash accounting to accrual accounting, or rule-based to principle-based accounting, by many governments is part of an ongoing efforts in promoting a more business-like and performance-focused public sector. Using questionnaire responses from preparers of financial statements of public universities in Malaysia, this study examines the implementation challenges and benefits of principle-based accounting. Results from these responses suggest that most respondents perceived significant costs would be incurred in relation to staff training and recruitment of staffs with relevant technical knowledge. In addition, most respondents also perceived that there will be significant changes in the current accounting system and structure in order to comply with the principle-based accounting requirements. However, most respondents perceived that these changes might not result in significant benefits for management purposes, for example, financial management, budgeting and allocation of resources. Nevertheless, most respondents perceived that principle-based accounting information would facilitate the monitoring function of the board. The general perception is that adoption of principle-based accounting information is not significantly useful than rule-based accounting information is expected to change over time as preparers of the financial statements gradually understand and appreciate the benefits of principle-based accounting information. This infers that the perceived usefulness of different accounting system is a function of familiarity by the preparers.