Accounting and the Public Interest

ABSTRACT Corporate tax responsibility, or the obligation of companies to pay their “fair share” of taxes, is increasingly perceived as a component of firms’ social responsibility. Considering tax payments through the redistributive function, we examine how the association between corporate tax responsibility and firm value varies based on the presence of a salient social issue—local income inequality. Firms headquartered in areas of average income inequality have a negative relation between effective tax rate (ETR) and firm value, consistent with traditional economic theory and prior research. However, as local income inequality rises above average, the relation between ETR and firm value becomes more favorable (i.e., less negative). We interpret these findings as evidence that the relation depends on the salience of tax payments as a social issue. Further, the results are substantiated by firms whose socially responsible tax payments are consistent with their reputation as good corporate citizens. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: D22; H23; H25; H32.

Curtis A. Farnsel

Erica L. Neuman

Local Income Inequality and the Value of Corporate Tax Responsibility

地方收入不平等与企业税务责任的价值

ABSTRACT Current audit guidance directs the auditor to modify their opinion in the presence of significant doubt about their client's ability to continue as a going concern. This paper examines whether managerial ability influences the accuracy of auditors' going concern information signal. Following prior literature, we assess accuracy based on the subsequent viability of the client. We find that, while managerial ability decreases the risk of Type I errors (the auditor issues a going concern opinion for a firm that subsequently remains viable), managerial ability increases the risk of Type II errors (the auditor issues a standard unqualified report for a firm that subsequently files for bankruptcy). Considering prior research indicates that the auditor's opinion provides important information to the market, this finding has important public interest implications regarding the signaling of bankruptcy risk to investors and creditors by auditors' going concern opinion.

Nathan R. Berglund

Donald R. Herrmann

Bradley P. Lawson

Managerial Ability and the Accuracy of the Going Concern Opinion

管理能力与持续经营意见的准确性

ABSTRACT Casino gambling has greatly expanded in the United States since 1988. This paper considers the public interest implications of this change, including increased social costs and state revenues from casinos that can help address these costs. We describe casino growth, including the role of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in casino development. After reviewing the research associated with casino social costs and state revenues, we select a number of states, concentrating in the northeastern United States, and describe the state revenues from casinos along with the funding that is provided for problem gambling prevention and treatment programs. We find a lack of consistency in the state casino tax rates, resulting revenues, and support for problem gambling prevention and treatment programs. Since billions of dollars of revenues are potentially at stake, state leaders should consider employing a strategy to capitalize on these revenues, given the increasingly prevalent social costs associated with casinos and the need to support problem gambling prevention and treatment programs.

Julia M. Camp

Carol A. Hartley

Patrick T. Kelly

The Expansion of Casino Gambling in the United States—State Revenues and Public Interest Implications

美国赌场博彩业的扩张——州财政收入与公共利益的影响

ABSTRACT The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 overhauled the U.S. corporate tax system, lowering the statutory rate, exempting foreign earned income, and strengthening anti-abuse provisions. However, opportunities and incentives for abuse remain. Therefore, while developing tax policy is helpful, this paper posits that developing tax professionalism—not only tax policy—is needed. Efforts to reform tax policy should be balanced with efforts to develop and guard tax professionalism. Implementing tax policies in a flourishing tax system requires flourishing tax professionals. We develop theoretical and moral analyses to assess tax policy and tax professionalism approaches to tax reform. By targeting processes in the tax system, the tax policy approach attempts to influence practitioner behavior by restricting opportunities and incentives for corporate tax aggression. The tax professionalism approach recognizes that beneath efforts to influence behavior is a deeper, fundamental challenge to develop and protect tax professionals as reflexive agents capable of responsibly handling tax system opportunities and incentives. The tax professionalism approach focuses on persons in the tax system—not processes. This paper draws attention to the limitations of the tax policy approach and to the complementary need for the tax professionalism approach and proposes practical approaches to developing tax professionalism.

Martin T. Stuebs

Helen (Janie) Whiteaker-Poe

Making Tax Havens Work: The Necessity of Tax Professionalism

让避税天堂发挥作用：税务专业性的必要性

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and wrongdoer rank on the likelihood of reporting fraud internally versus externally. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with 90 managerial accounting professionals as participants, we manipulate a hypothetical firm's CSR status (CSR firm versus non-CSR firm) and wrongdoer rank within the firm (CFO versus Senior Accounting Manager). Participants in the CSR condition are more likely than participants in the non-CSR condition to report fraud through the internal reporting channel relative to the external reporting channel. Further, results show that internal reporting likelihood is greater when the wrongdoer is the Senior Accounting Manager than when the wrongdoer is the CFO. Structural equation analysis reveals that affective organizational commitment fully mediates the relation between CSR status and the preference to report internally. JEL Classifications: M40; M14. Data Availability: Data are available upon request from the authors.

Alisa G. Brink

C. Kevin Eller

Karen Y. Green

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and Wrongdoer Rank on Whistleblowing

企业社会责任与违规者层级对举报行为的影响

ABSTRACT Our study investigates whether the quality of information available within firms promotes corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Using different measures of internal information quality, we find that internal information quality is positively associated with CSR strengths, which are discretionary in nature, and negatively associated with CSR concerns, which are compliance oriented. We find that the positive association between internal information quality and CSR strengths is stronger in settings with internal information asymmetries due to greater cash flow volatility, a larger number of employees, or a broader geographic footprint. We also find that the negative association between internal information quality and CSR concerns is stronger in compliance settings where there are internal information asymmetries linked to year-over-year increases in concerns. Our results suggest that organizational practices that improve a firm’s internal information environment will likely enhance CSR performance by promoting CSR strengths and diminishing CSR concerns. Data Sources: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M14; Q56; M41; D8.

Brent Lao

Gregory P. McPhee

Internal Information Quality and Corporate Social Responsibility Performance: An Analysis of CSR Strengths and CSR Concerns

内部信息质量与企业社会责任表现：基于CSR优势与CSR关注点的分析

ABSTRACT This study investigates the efficacy of two strategies, active self-concept priming and message framing, designed to encourage standard-compliant behavior. We prime 82 bicultural U.S. taxpayers from a collectivist culture through informational videos to activate either an individualist or collectivist self-concept. The message is framed to match (versus not match) the primed self-concept. Results reveal an ordinal interaction where participants primed with a collectivist self-concept have higher tax compliance than those primed with an individualist self-concept, and the highest compliance occurs when the message has a relational focus (i.e., collectivist prime match) compared to a self-focus (i.e., individualist prime match). Supplemental analysis suggests that raising the salience of the collectivist-self over the individualist-self indirectly affects taxpayers’ intentions to comply through the mediator of taxpayers’ attitudes. The findings highlight the potential of behavioral priming as a low-cost strategy for boosting tax revenues that fund services that benefit the public interest at large. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.

Andrew C. Stuart

Tracey J. Riley

Christine J. Nolder

Self-Concept Priming and Message Framing As Strategies for Improving Individuals’ Compliance: A Case Study of Bicultural Taxpayers’ Tip Reporting

自我概念启动与信息框架作为提高个人遵从性的策略：双文化纳税人小费报告案例研究

ABSTRACT If academic accounting research is not of interest to practicing accountants and regulators, public interest wanes, the academy becomes an echo chamber of its own ideas, and researchers risk relevancy and financial support. To provide insight about the obstacles perceived to reduce the likelihood that accounting academics will publish practice-relevant research in academic journals, we sent a survey to more than 5,600 U.S. accounting faculty members. Based on 567 survey responses, we identify eight obstacles that the survey respondents believe reduce the likelihood that they will publish practice-relevant research. The most frequently reported obstacle is that academic journal editors are not interested in publishing practice-related research (77 percent of survey respondents). We also provide evidence that the more academics interact with practitioners, the more likely they are to conduct and publish practice-relevant academic research. Recommendations and observations are included to help address the identified obstacles.

Brian E. Daugherty

Denise Dickins

Marshall K. Pitman

Wayne A. Tervo

Perceived Obstacles to Conducting and Publishing Practice-Relevant Academic Accounting Research

感知到的开展和发表与实践相关的学术会计研究障碍

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Citation Krista Fiolleau, Linda Thorne; The Impact of the Global Pandemic on Ethics, Professionalism, and Judgment in Accounting and Financial Reporting. Accounting and the Public Interest 1 December 2023; 23 (1): 174–176. https://doi.org/10.2308/API-2023-009 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAccounting and the Public Interest Search Advanced Search

Krista Fiolleau

Linda Thorne

The Impact of the Global Pandemic on Ethics, Professionalism, and Judgment in Accounting and Financial Reporting

全球疫情对会计与财务报告中的伦理、专业性和判断的影响

ISSN	1530-9320
h-index	13

Publication Information	Publisher: American Accounting Association，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2009，Proportion of original research papers: 0.00%，Self Citation Rate:N.A.， Gold OA Rate: 0.00%

Accounting and the Public Interest

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Local Income Inequality and the Value of Corporate Tax Responsibility

Managerial Ability and the Accuracy of the Going Concern Opinion

The Expansion of Casino Gambling in the United States—State Revenues and Public Interest Implications

Making Tax Havens Work: The Necessity of Tax Professionalism

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and Wrongdoer Rank on Whistleblowing

Local Income Inequality and the Value of Corporate Tax Responsibility

Internal Information Quality and Corporate Social Responsibility Performance: An Analysis of CSR Strengths and CSR Concerns

Self-Concept Priming and Message Framing As Strategies for Improving Individuals’ Compliance: A Case Study of Bicultural Taxpayers’ Tip Reporting

Perceived Obstacles to Conducting and Publishing Practice-Relevant Academic Accounting Research

The Impact of the Global Pandemic on Ethics, Professionalism, and Judgment in Accounting and Financial Reporting