Accounting & taxation

This paper investigates the impact of directors' political experience, acquired on the financial performance of listed companies, after the Tunisian revolution of 2011. We also emphasize the directors' strategic experience, and the board of directors' demographic and structural characteristics. Our data are based on a sample of 22 Tunisian companies listed on the Tunisian stock exchange during the period 2012 to 2018. This period is characterized by a high corruption. We use two different regression models to examine the impact of the directors' political experience on the firm's performance. Especially, two measures of the financial performance, namely the ROE and the Tobin's Q are considered. The results show that political experience is insignificant when considering the ROE while it has a negative impact on performance when it is measured by the Tobin's Q. Nevertheless, strategic experience, the presence of women and the frequency of meetings moderate this negative impact and increase performance.

A number of factors may be responsible for low compliance in income tax administration in Nigeria. However, taxpayers' attitude has been identified as one factor that play important role in influencing tax compliance behaviour. Besides, the influence of taxpayers' attitude on compliance behaviour may be moderated by financial condition and risk preference. This study investigated the moderating effect of financial condition and risk preference on relationship between taxpayers' attitude and compliance behaviour. The data of the study, which were collected through a survey of individual taxpayers' opinion, were treated statistically using moderated multiple regression. The result of the study indicates that taxpayer's attitude towards tax evasion is positively related to compliance behaviour. Furthermore, the study also reveals that taxpayer's risk preference has strong negative moderating impact on the relationship between attitude towards tax evasion and compliance behaviour.

The Domesday Survey of 1086 recorded a wealth of information on the Anglo-Norman tax system. The survey data includes the tax assessments, incomes and resources of most estates in England. The assessments relate to an estate tax known as the geld. Details of the way the assessments were imposed and the rationale underlying the assessment process are no longer extant, but by analysing the relationships between assessments and estate characteristics, it is possible to discover the impact of the tax on landholders and infer the main features of tax policy. An earlier paper by McDonald (2002), describes research into how Domesday taxes were levied and the characteristics of estates and tenants that received favourable tax treatment in Essex. In this paper, the research is extended to a second Domesday county, Wiltshire.

This paper reports the results of a study that investigates the level of IT knowledge and also IT importance in the specific context of audit work in Malaysia. Results of this study is based on data collected from 95 audit firms via mailed questionnaires. The results suggested information systems audit in Malaysia is still at the infant stage. IT knowledge level among the auditors is lower than their perception towards the importance of the technologies. Twelve technologies are considered relevant in the context of audit work in Malaysia, while only 5 technologies are considered knowledgeable by the responding auditors. On average, General Office Automation receives the highest mean value for both importance and knowledge, whilst system development and installation receives the lowest mean value. Overall, responding auditors perceived their overall IT knowledge as adequate, while the current practice of information systems audit is less than adequate. Findings from this study are significant to the standards setters regulating the audit profession, academicians designing university courses and audit practitioners evaluating their own IT knowledge. The findings can be used to gauge the relevant IT in the specific context of audit work and also the IT knowledge level of the auditors not just in Malaysia but also other developing countries.

In 1944, Martin Crowe, a Catholic priest, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled The Moral Obligation of Paying Just Taxes. His dissertation summarized and analyzed 500 years of theological and philosophical debate on this topic, which identified three basic philosophical positions on the issue (tax evasion is always unethical, sometimes unethical or never unethical). Since Crowe's dissertation, not much has been written on the topic of tax evasion from an ethical or religious perspective.

The extent of voluntary corporate disclosure by companies in annual reports in recent years has increased due to various factors. A number of prior studies examined the relationship between ownership concentration and voluntary corporate disclosure. Their findings suggest there is less voluntary corporate disclosure in family owned and high shareholder concentrated firms. On the other hand, companies with low shareholder concentration are likely to have more voluntary corporate disclosure because of the principal to agent relationship. Though studies have examined the impact of ownership structure on the extent of voluntary disclosure, there is still a need to investigate the issue in the Pacific Island countries, such as Fiji. The ownership structure of the companies in Fiji is highly concentrated. This paper examines the relationship between ownership structure and the extent of voluntary corporate disclosure in annual reports of listed companies in Fiji. A content analysis approach suggests how the ownership structure affects the extent of voluntary corporate disclosure in Fiji.

International Accounting Standard No. 1 was released in 2007. The standard required publicly traded companies to separately report comprehensive income in the financial statements. International Accounting Standard No. 1 prescribed two alternative formats for the presentation without mandating any one specific format. It also provides other options such as the criterion for classification of expenses and the presentation of Other Comprehensive Income items at net or gross of tax. The present study examined the presentation of comprehensive income by a sample of companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. The goal is to define the degree of homogeneity of the income statements and to explore current correlation between the direction and size of the Other Comprehensive Income and to identify the prescribed method to present Comprehensive Income. The results show substantial uniformity across Italian companies, with regard to how company accountants present Other Comprehensive Inco...

The objective of this paper is to analyze impacts of the divergences between Brazilian accounting standards (BR GAAP) and 'generally accepted accounting principles' in the United States (US GAAP) in accounting recognition, measurement and disclosure. Seventeen Brazilian companies listed on the São Paulo stock exchange (BOVESPA) that negotiated American depositary receipts (ADRs) on the New York stock exchange (NYSE) were selected, using as a reference financial statements. Results demonstrate that the principal groups of accounts affected by divergences were long term realizable assets (assets and equity realizable over a long term), long term exigible liability (long term debts) and operational profit. The principle divergences observed in explanatory notes were those relative to 'goodwill' and structure of the balance.

The 1994 Mexican banking crisis led to wholesale changes in the deposit insurance fund in the country’s banking system. Poor lending decisions allowed banks to transfer risk to the fund, resulting in their capturing returns on performing loans, while limiting downside exposure when the fund covered losses on non-performing loans. Through a series of programs, the Mexican banking system now uses performance bonds in concert with the insurance fund. The bonds adjust in price based on the level of risk, and purport to measure the level of safety for the fund. We measure the effect of regulator actions by monitoring performance bond price levels over a 104-month period. Key bank ratios in the areas of liquidity, profitability, activity, and leverage were collected on the largest seven national banks, which control 87% of the capital in the banking system. Through a regression analysis, effects of these bank indicators demonstrate that, while not all are useful for predicting risk reduct...

Tax revenue has remained the most reliable and controllable source of revenue to governments all over the world. This is however not the case in Nigeria as tax revenue accounts for a small proportion of government revenue. This study therefore investigated the influence of real sector output on tax revenue in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted using validated macro data obtained for the period 1981-2017. Various tests including descriptive statistics, trend analysis, and stationary tests using Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test were conducted. The ARDL bound test was employed to determine the existence of long run relationship between the variables. The study concluded that real sector output, controlling for inflation rate and exchange rate, has significant positive influence on tax revenue generation in Nigeria (Adj. R 2 = .603, F (33,3) = 417.033, p < .05). Furthermore, exchange rate and inflation rate had significant moderating effect on tax revenue in Nigeria. Also, the result of the granger causality test revealed non-existence of bi-directional relationship between real sector output and total tax revenue. The study recommended that government should intensify effort on stimulating growth in the real sector of the economy in order to achieve sustainable increase in tax revenue. In addition, government's macroeconomic policies on exchange rate and inflation rate should be undertaken in a way to optimize tax revenue.

Previous studies indicated that most organizations do not invest in AIS because they do not know the importance of AIS to their organizational growth, while some that invested do not know it impacts on their organizational growth. This study examined investment in accounting information system and its effect on sales growth of Nigeria Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The specific objectives of the study are to; identify the factors that influence sales growth, and examine the relationship between investment in Accounting Information System (AIS) and sale growth. A total of 120 questionnaires were administered to management staff of each selected Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) in Lagos State, Nigeria. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for the study. The descriptive statistics employed include percentage frequency and charts to achieve the study objectives. The inferential statistics employed is multiple regression analysis while ANOVA was used to examine the relationship between investment in accounting information system and sales growth. Findings revealed that AIS investment, non AIS labor and AIS labor accounted for 82% of the variation in sale growth in the study area and that there is a relationship between investment in accounting information system and sale growth. Furthermore, it was revealed that AIS investment have the highest impact on sales growth (beta value = 0.944) followed by AIS labor (beta value = -0.018) while the variables that had the least impact on sales growth was Non AIS labor (beta value = -0.052). Conclusively, it was affirmed that a relationship existed between investment in AIS and sales growth. Consequently, government should implement a policy that will stimulate the investment in AIS by SME in order to improve their sales and in return have positive impact on economy development of the nation.

The study empirically examines the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and corporate tax compliance in the Greek setting where extreme aggregate fluctuations have taken place. Using a sample of 246,867 firm-year observations from 2004 to 2014, the study found strong evidence that there is negative association between economic conditions, as measured by the rate of gross domestic product, and corporate tax avoidance magnitude thus confirming recent prior evidence. We however, found that the association between the state of economic conditions and corporate tax evasion magnitude is positive. In other words, based on quantitative results combining firm-level and macroeconomic data, we argue that, all other things being equal, during recession phases of the economy firms are basically intended to avoid taxes whereas during expansion phases firms are basically focused and apply in a greater extent tax evasion practices. To the best of this study knowledge this is the first study providing empirical evidence on how macroeconomic cycles affect all aspects of corporate tax compliance behavior.

Shipping and logistics play a major role in foreign trade operations. Knowledge and experience on different modes of transport, shipping lines, routes, and transshipment etc. would enable the persons in charge of Export-Import to profitably decide the feasibility of different modes of shipment. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is responsible for implementing and enforcing the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), which regulate the export and reexport of most commercial items. The items that BIS regulates as "dual-use"items that have commercial and military or proliferation applications-but purely commercial items without an obvious military use are also subject to the EAR. Any item that is sent to a foreign destination is an export. "Items" include commodities, software or technology, such as clothing, building materials, circuit boards, automotive parts, blue prints, design plans, retail software packages and technical information. A set of schematics can be sent via facsimile to a foreign destination, software can be uploaded to or downloaded from an Internet site, or technology can be transmitted via e-mail or during a telephone conversation. Regardless of the method used for the transfer, the transaction is considered an export for export control purposes. A key in determining whether an export license is needed from the Department of Commerce knows whether the item you are intending to export has a specific Export Control classification Number (ECCN). The ECCN is an alpha-numeric code, e.g., 3A001 that describes a particular item or type of item, and shows the controls placed on that item. All ECCNs are listed in the commerce control List (CCL).