Individuals are increasingly using expert system tax programs as a substitute for paid professionals when preparing their income tax returns. This study examines ways that expert systems encourage the same aggressive results documented when paid professionals are used. Examining the use of expert systems and the related behavior of taxpayers reveals aggressive reporting related to the commonly used warning alerts in tax programs. Using an experimental economics setting in which participants report liabilities with the possibility of penalties for noncompliant reporting, participants filled out a Claim Form mimicking a Schedule C in one of four conditions: manual preparation, no alerts, alerts triggered at a high threshold of reporting aggression, and alerts triggered at a low level of reporting aggression. Comparing the amounts deducted in each condition revealed that warning alerts with low thresholds of activation decreased aggressive reporting while warning alerts with high thresholds of activation increased aggressive reporting. Survey instruments measuring user satisfaction indicated significantly lower satisfaction when (high or low level) warning alerts were used versus no warning alerts. Contrary to expectations, respondents using the expert system tax program with high threshold warning alerts compared to no warning alerts reported a significantly higher perception of accuracy. This study demonstrates the extreme to which taxpayers are swayed by perceived aspects of the tax software that are irrelevant to the facts of their tax situations. Exactly what taxpayers need to be given by way of guidance and direction to comport their behavior to the tax laws is a critical question of public policy.

No description available.

No description available.

Treaty Shopping can be defined as the "abuse" of tax conventions; it is a major international taxation topic. Its importance is increasing since the beginning of the 80's and the enactment of specific anti treaty shopping measures. / Those specific measures are the purpose of this thesis. Is treaty shopping a solved problem? Are those measures, taken principally by the undisputed leader of this policy, the United States, entirely efficient? / In order to answer those questions, a brief study of the phenomenon of treaty shopping is needed. The first part of this thesis deals with this issue. / The measures themselves are analyzed in the second part. Basically, we can classify them in two categories, the national and the limitation on benefits incorporated in tax conventions. Both of them present weaknesses and approximations. In those circumstances, it would be difficult to admit the end of treaty shopping. Moreover, those measures have raised new problems that must be addressed firstly in order to envisage an end to the practice of treaty shopping.

No description available.

No description available.

The main objective of this study is to investigate empirically users' perceptions of the usefulness of financial information that could be provided in corporate annual reports presented by listed companies in Egypt. This investigation is carried out, in the light of the requirements of the Egyptian Accounting Standards (EASs) issued in 1997, the new listing rules of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) adopted in 2000 and the Capital Market Law (CML) No. 95/1992, using a set of eleven qualitative characteristics of accounting information (QCOAI) in a hierarchy, which should be possessed by financial information if it is to be useful to its users. Those characteristics are: understandability, relevance, reliability, comparability, predictive value, timeliness, faithful representation, neutrality, verifiability, consistency and materiality. A survey was carried out, based on a questionnaire, which was designed and pre-tested in two stages, as a basic data collection instrument supported by some semi-structured personal interviews. 320 questionnaires were personally distributed, and a total of 232 questionnaires were collected. Of them 222 were usable and analysable, representing about 69.38%. The survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of five groups of users of corporate annual reports, namely, financial analysts, decision makers, academics, stock brokers, and staff of the regulatory and observatory bodies, regarding the importance they attach to corporate annual reports and different sources of financial information, sections of corporate annual reports, each of the QCOAI selected earlier in the study, and some financial information items. The collected data were largely quantifiable and based on a five-point scale. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences — SPSS was used in analysing the collected data and the analysis was carried out for the overall sample and for the various sub-groups using the descriptive statistics and the statistical analysis (the non-parametric tests such as the Chi-square Test, the Kruskal-Wallis H Test and the Mann-Whitney U Test). A major finding is that "corporate annual reports" were perceived as the most important source of financial information by users in Egypt, followed by "newspapers and magazines" and "the direct contact with the company management". Also, there was a clear finding that "income statement" was considered as the most important section among the various sections of corporate annual reports followed by "balance sheet" and "cash flow statement". It was found that users as a whole, and as occupation, education and experience groups, considered the selected set of QCOAI to be suitable for use in the evaluation of the usefulness of financial information provided in corporate annual reports. All selected characteristics were perceived to be important or very important characteristics, to slightly different degrees. Furthermore, the study found that "timeliness" was considered as the most important characteristic. Lastly, the majority of financial information items that were perceived as the most important items, whether or not mandatorily required, are not disclosed by listed companies.

The objective of this research is to explore the area of financial accounting, international accounting, and accounting technology transfer, with emphasis on accounting for developing countries, specifically Indonesia. Confining itself to external financial reporting, the study explores the influence of environmental aspects on accounting standards and practices, institutionally and technically. Analysis of the role and needs of preparers, users, auditors and government agencies, and of the interaction between institutional and technical aspects, conducted to ascertain their implications for accounting development in Indonesia. The empirical research was conducted using hypotheses as catalysts, to test the characteristics, general opinions and attitudes of the interested parties toward accounting standards and practices, accounting education and development of the accounting profession. The findings of the research suggest that accounting technology cannot be successfully transferred from a developed to a developing country without considering the influence of environment, particularly the role of government. Indonesia, heavily influenced by the US accounting, needs to improve its accounting system in order to make it appropriate for its own environment. Many deficiencies were found in the areas of accounting theory, accounting standards and practice, accounting rules and regulations, accounting education, professional accounting and the role of government. In order to improve the existing conditions, it must be recognised that those aspects are closely related, and that the only way to develop the role of accounting is to adopt an integrated approach. The study provides a series of recommendations, based upon the findings of the empirical research, which should provide a useful starting point towards such an approach.

No description available.

No description available.