Purpose: Accounting practices vary not only across firms, but also across countries, reflecting the respective legal and cultural background. Attempts at harmonization therefore continue to be rebuffed. The purpose of this paper is to argue that different wordings in national laws, and different interpretations of similar wordings in national laws, can be explained by taking recourse to the philosophy of language, referring particularly to Searle and Wittgenstein. Design/methodology/approach: The example of the substance over form principle, investigated in seven countries, is particularly suitable for this analysis. It is known in all accounting jurisdictions, but still has very different roots in different European countries, with European and international influences conflicting, which is reflected in the different wording of the principle from one country to the next, and the different socially constructed realities associated with those wordings. Findings: This paper shows that, beyond accounting practices, the legal and cultural background of a country affects the wording of national law itself. The broad conclusion is that different socially constructed realities might tend to resist any attempt at harmonized socially constructed words. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the debate surrounding the possible homogenization of accounting regulations, illustrating the theory of the social construction of both "reality" and "language" on the specific application of one common principle to various Member State environments.

In recent decades, a number of philosophers have sought to explain the nature of human action using Aristotle’s theory of material constitution. According to these neo-Aristotelian accounts, material objects serve as the paradigm cases for analysing the concept of action. As composites of matter and form, material objects—and, in particular, biological organisms—possess a kind of constitutive unity: they are “hylomorphic wholes”. The same kind of unity purportedly exists with regard to actions, which are constituted likewise. My task in this paper will be to give a precise articulation of this thesis and what it entails. If the neo-Aristotelian claim is right, then material objects really do serve as the paradigm cases for understanding the constitution of action. In Chapter III, I will simply presume the truth of this general claim, in order to focus my attention on the relative merits and weaknesses of specific arguments given in support of it. Before considering these arguments, however, we will need to first clarify Aristotle’s thesis concerning material objects. This will be my aim in Chapter II. In general, I will accept the conventional Aristotelian position that a material thing, qua concrete substance, is constituted by substantial form in matter, a unified whole. I will presume as correct the Thomistic conception of such composites, which employs the distinction between act and potency: matter is pure potentiality for the reception of form, and form is “a determinate actualisation of this potentiality”. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. R. M. Dancy, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Philosophy. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 19, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 100 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Uppsatsens syfte är att mot bakgrund av införandet av 53 kap. IL och den s.k. X och Y- domen, analysera när ett lån från ett utländskt holdingbolag, kan omklassificeras till utdelning genom en tillämpning av principen om rättshandlingars verkliga innebörd. EU-domstolens dom i X och Y-målet föranledde att reglerna i 53 kap. IL ändrades och gjorde det möjligt för svenska privatpersoner att överlåta aktier till underpris till egna bolag i utlandet utan några omedelbara beskattningskonsekvenser. De nya reglerna öppnade upp för en omfattande skatteplanering genom upplägg med utländska holdingbolag. Genom att låna medel från ett holdingbolag som etablerats i utlandet, har svenska privatpersoner kunnat kringgå låneförbudsreglerna i ABL och därmed undvika beskattning. Under 2009 ändrades reglerna för beskattning av förbjudna lån. De nya reglerna tillämpades från den 13 februari 2009 och innebär att lån från utländska juridiska personer numera ska beskattas. Skatteverket har dock fortsatt att angripa lånetransaktioner som har företagits före denna tidpunkt och hävdat att lånen egentligen utgör skattepliktig utdelning. Principen om rättshandlingars verkliga innebörd innebär att domstolarna kan omklassificera en felaktigt betecknad rättshandling och låta den verkliga innebörden ligga till grund för beskattningen. En omklassificering kan endast göras om en rättshandlings beteckning inte stämmer överens med den verkliga innebörden. Ett lån från ett utländskt holdingbolag borde därför kunna omklassificeras till utdelning endast om lånet kan an-ses utgöra förtäckt utdelning enligt ABL. En samlad bedömning måste göras av samtli-ga omständigheter i det enskilda fallet. Frågan har dock inte prövats i högre instans och rättsläget är fortfarande oklart. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyse when, in the light of the X and Y case and chapter 53 IL, a loan from a holding company could be classified as a dividend by applying the principle of substance over form. The ruling of the Court of Justice in the X and Y-case, led to a change of the rules in chapter 53 IL. The new rules made it possible for natural persons to transfer shares in companies at undervalue to foreign legal persons owned by them, without immediate taxation. The new rules resulted in wide tax planning with foreign holding companies. By taking a loan from a holding company established abroad, natural persons could circumvent the ban on credit rules in ABL, and thereby avoid taxation. In 2009 the tax rules concerning forbidden loans where changed. The new rules were applicable from the 13th of February 2009 and imply that loans taken from foreign legal persons should be taxed. However, the tax authorities continue to inspect transactions carried out before this date, claiming that the loans constitute taxable dividends. According to the principle of substance over form, courts are free to reclassify a legal act that is not labeled correctly. Thus, a legal act should be taxed due to its actual substance independent of what form or label it has. A reclassification can only be made when the label of the legal act does not correspond with its real meaning. Hence, a loan from a holding company should only be reclassified to a dividend, if the loan is considered to constitute such disguised dividend according to ABL. All facts need to be considered in the evaluation. The particular question has not been tried by a higher court and therefore the legal position is still unclear.

This thesis examines the concept of EU corporate tax abuse in light of the tensions between the protection of EU Fundamental rights and the susceptibility of those rights to abuse. Consideration is given to the major tax abuse practices and arrangements, accompanied by analyses of the responses of a selection of EU member states, and the role and impacts of judicial, state and commercial stakeholder interests. Consequent upon an examination of why past proposals have failed to attain either policy adoption or policy success, it is suggested that the legal concepts of abuse of rights, substance over form and proportionality may be of value in assessing and validating a corporate tax abuse proposal. It will be argued that Member State tax rules and policy initiatives to date have been unsuccessful in eradicating the effects of corporate tax abuse deriving from the exploitation of Fundamental Freedoms and that this failure is attributable to reasons of poor transactional data lineage and disclosure, unresolved political and judicial conflicts between balancing Member State rights with the Internal Market ideal and from a corporate culture that is incentivised to circumvent tax rules with limited recourse. Following an assessment of whether reform should focus on transactional based tax rules or on a broader legal framework to induce taxpayer behavioural changes, it is contended that EU corporate tax abuse can be addressed by rejecting the traditional ideals of tax harmonisation, formulary apportionment, and principles or rule-based tax law approaches as a complete solution. An effective scheme of reform should instead be based on Enhanced Disclosures and Attestation incorporating country-by-country reporting, additional reporting metrics and legal attestations, underpinned by civil and criminal penalties.

Malgré une large adoption des normes comptables internationales, les pratiques restent diversifiées. Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse explorent les raisons possibles à cette harmonisation inachevée. Un premier chapitre identifie les politiques d’adoption des IFRS menées dans le monde et leurs déterminants. Les chapitres suivants analysent le rôle de la langue, du système juridique et de l’usage de l’information comptable par les préparateurs, comme obstacles possibles à l’harmonisation des pratiques. Les résultats mettent en évidence un certain nombre de difficultés : les normes IFRS n’ont pas toujours la même place dans les réglementations locales ; la traduction des normes achoppe sur la difficulté majeure de traduction de principes fondateurs ; les normes doivent s’adapter à des systèmes juridiques divers ; enfin l’information comptable sert à la fois pour des besoins externes et internes, ce qui peut donner lieu à des pratiques hétérogènes. Des pistes d’amélioration émergent toutefois. Certaines politiques d’adoption semblent plus propices à une application cohérente du référentiel, en particulier lorsque les entités soumises à ces normes peuvent les utiliser pour tous leurs jeux de comptes. Certains pays européens ont mis en oeuvre une pratique continentale du principe de substance, sous une forme différente du système anglo-saxon, mais avec une même finalité en termes de traitements comptables. En France où le principe n’est pas formellement intégré en comptabilité, cette prééminence de la substance est déjà prise en compte dans d’autres domaines réglementaires, réduisant la difficulté pressentie à son introduction dans le droit comptable / Despite a wide adoption of international standards, IFRS practice remains diverse. The studies presented in this thesis explore the possible reasons for this unachieved harmonisation. The first chapter identifies the IFRS adoption policies throughout the world and their determinants. The following chapters analyse the role of language, legal system and usage of financial information by preparers, as potential obstacles to practices’ homogeneity. The result unveil some issues: IFRS standards do not have the same function in local regulations; standards’ translation stumbles over the major difficulty related to fundamental principles; standards need to adapt to various legal systems; finally the financial information is used both for internal and external use which can result in heterogeneous practices. Ways to improve still appeared. Some adoption policies appear to conduct to a coherent application of IFRS, in particular when entities have the possibility to follow the same standards for all their accounts. Some European countries have found a continental way to use the substance over form principle, different from the Anglo-Saxon, yet with the same target in terms of accounting rules. In France where the substance principle is not formally integrated in accounting, this principle is already used by other regulatory fields, which comforts the feasibility of its introduction in our accounting law.

En tilltagande globalisering inom redovisning har bidragit till att internationella redovisningsprinciper och regler befinner sig i en harmoniseringsprocess. Bokföringsnämndens K-projekt pekar på att Sverige är del av denna process. Börsnoterade företag inom EU är tvingade att upprätta den finansiella rapporteringen enligt IFRS, men för svenska onoterade företag finns valmöjligheten att tillämpa de svenska reglerna. Argumenten för frivilligt antagande av IFRS bygger på ökad kvalitet, transparens och jämförbarhet i de finansiella rapporterna, vilket ska öka användbarheten för intressenterna. År 2012 inledde IASB ett arbete avseende revidering av den befintliga föreställningsramen, vilken beräknas vara färdigställd under år 2017. Den reviderade föreställningsramen lyfter fram betydelsen av tre primära intressenter, vilka utgörs av investerare, långivare och andra kreditgivare.Syftet med studien är att utreda hur svenska onoterade moderbolags val av att anta IFRS frivilligt, i stället för att tillämpa K3, påverkar de finansiella rapporterna och de primära intressenterna utifrån ett informationsbehovsperspektiv. Detta illustreras med fyra stycken hypotetiska typfall. För att uppnå syftet undersöks vilka skillnader som föreligger vid redovisningen enligt IFRS och K3 avseende finansiella instrument, goodwill vid rörelseförvärv, FoU-kostnader samt förvaltningsfastigheter med fokus på upplysningar. Metoden som tillämpas i studien är en deskriptiv analys med en abduktiv ansats inom ramen för kvalitativ forskning.Resultaten av studien visar på att det föreligger stora skillnader mellan IFRS och K3, vilket får effekten att företag som redovisar enligt IFRS framstår som mer lönsamma och mindre riskfyllda. Ett frivilligt antagande av IFRS bidrar till mer användbar information i de finansiella rapporterna samt att dessa bättre speglar företaget ekonomiska verklighet. Sammantaget framstår redovisningen enligt IFRS som mer attraktiv i förhållande till K3, utifrån de primära intressenternas informationsbehov. / Due to expanding globalization of accounting, the international accounting principles and regulations are currently in a process of harmonization. The K-project of the Swedish accounting authority Bokföringsnämnden, indicates that Sweden is a part of this process. According to EU-regulation listed companies are obligated to prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS since 2005, but for unlisted Swedish companies there is an option of applying local Swedish regulations. The arguments in favor of a voluntary adoption of IFRS rest on promises of improved quality, transparency and comparability of financial statements, which further will increase its usefulness to stakeholders. In 2012, the IASB initiated a project regarding a revised Conceptual Framework, which is expected to be completed during 2017. The revised Conceptual Framework highlights the importance of three primary stakeholders, consisting of investors, lenders and other creditors.The objective of this study is to examine how unlisted Swedish parent companies’ choice of adopting IFRS voluntarily, instead of applying K3, affects the financial reports and primary stakeholders based on an information need perspective. This is illustrated by four hypothetical scenarios. In order to achieve the objective of this study, the existing differences of reporting under IFRS and K3 regarding financial instruments, goodwill in business combinations, R&D expenses and investment properties focusing on disclosures, are examined. The method used in the study is a descriptive analysis with an abductive approach within the frames of qualitative research.The findings indicate that there are major differences between IFRS and K3, which results in companies reporting according to IFRS appear to be more profitable and less of a risk. A voluntary adoption of IFRS contributes to more useful information in the financial statements and a better reflection of the company's financial reality. Overall, financial reporting according to IFRS appears more favorable than reporting under K3, based on the information need of the primary stakeholder.This paper is written in Swedish.

Les documents comptables occupent une place centrale dans la vie des affaires. Il est intéressant de porter un regard juridique sur eux pour plusieurs raisons. Tout d'abord, leur élaboration obéit à des règles se plaçant au service d'un objectif qui les dépasse : l'image fidèle. Le préparateur des comptes doit ainsi avoir le souci du lecteur des documents comptables, ce qui peut le conduire, dans certains cas, à déroger à la règle. Cette originalité dans la mise en œuvre de la règle comptable se double d'une originalité des qualifications comptables qui en découlent : les droits et obligations figurant dans les documents comptables sont soumis à une grille de lecture qui dépasse les catégories juridiques traditionnelles, ce qui ouvre de nouvelles perspectives pour le juriste, et conduit à remettre en cause la vision classique de l'activité comptable. Cet intérêt se renforce au moment de la réception juridique des documents comptables, qui invite à s'interroger sur les effets que l'on peut leur accorder. D'une part, quelle est la valeur juridique d'un enregistrement comptable : quelle est sa force probante ? Est-il éligible à la qualification d'acte juridique, voire d'engagement juridique unilatéral ? D'autre part, quelles sont les fonctions classiques des agrégats révélées par les documents comptables ? Doivent-elles être remises en cause par l'avènement des normes IFRS ? Enfin, quelles sont les sanctions attachées aux documents comptables ? Une telle question renvoie à la responsabilité des auteurs principaux, que sont les dirigeants, et à celle des professionnels du chiffre, que sont le commissaire aux comptes et l'expert-comptable / Accounting records hold a central place within the framework of business life. For a variety of reasons, it is interesting to consider these accounting records within the legal scope. First of all, the drafting of these documents is subjected to a special regulation which keystone is to present a true and fair view of the accounts. The person drafting the accounts should always keep in mind this purpose and the necessary readability of thesaid documents. This aim can sometimes lead this person to depart from the accounting rule. This originality of the implementation of the accounting rule has to be coupled with an originality of the subsequent accounting qualifications. The rights and obligations drawn up within the accounting records are subjected to a reading grid which goes beyond the classical legal categories. This specificity is opening new horizons to the legal expert and leads to a reconsideration of the traditional understanding of the accounting activity. This interest is strengthened at the time of the receipt of the accounting documents which suggests questioning ourselves about the effects of the latter. On the one hand, which is the legal force of an accounting record, in other words, what is its probative force? Can an accounting record be qualified as a legal transaction or perhaps even more as a unilateral contract? On the other hand, what are the traditional functions of the aggregates revealed by the accounting documents? Should these traditional functions be challenged by the IFRS standards? Finally, which sanctions are foreseen as to accounting documents?

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce (specialising in Taxation) / Tax avoidance is the legal utilisation of the tax regime to one's own advantage, to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. Tax evasion entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities in order to reduce their tax liability, and includes, in particular, dishonest tax reporting (such as declaring less income, profits or gains than actually earned; or overstating the deductions). The revised general anti-avoidance measures were introduced in the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 ('the Act') on 2 November 2006 in the form of section 80A to 80L, in order to replace the complicated and confusing as well as ineffective anti-avoidance measures contained in section 103(1). / AC 2018

Mr Justice Corbett made a substantial contribution to the South African tax law as he delivered several judgements during his long career on the bench. Starting from the lower ranks as a judge he became Chief Justice of South Africa. Precedents set by his judgements are considered important and indicative of the level of South African tax law. This dissertation observes his background, looks at the operations of the tax court in South Africa and examines whether his judgements were cited and applied in subsequent cases as accepted precedent. International case law is referred to, to compare his judgements with comparable international tax law. / Auditing / M. Comm. (Accounting)