中小企业会计准则外文文献.doc

中小企业会计准则外文文献int. j. liability and scientific enquiry vol. 2 no. 2 2009 233the application of an accounting standard for smes danue nerudov and hana bohuov accounting and tax institute of pef mzlu brno zemdlsk czech republic e-mail: d.nerudovaseznam.cz e-mail: uchanamendelu.cz corresponding author abstract: small and medium-sized companies have a very important position in the european union eu economy mainly in the area of employment. their activities in the internal market are limited by a great deal of obstacles. the most important obstacles are the different national accounting and tax systems. at present it is obvious that a certain degree of accounting and tax harmonisation has to take place. international financial reporting standards ifrs for small- and medium-sized enterprises smes is designed to apply to the general-purpose harmonised financial statements of all profit-oriented smes. general-purpose financial statements are directed toward the common information needs an entitys financial position performance cash flow of a wide range of users shareholders creditors employees. determining taxable income requires special-purpose financial statements designed to comply with the tax laws and regulations in a particular jurisdiction. an entitys taxable income is defined by the laws and regulations of the country or other jurisdictions in which it is domiciled. tax authorities are also important external users of the financial statements of smes. profit or loss recognised under ifrs for smes could be a starting point for determining taxable income. keywords: small- and medium-sized enterprises smes taxable income international financial reporting standards ifrs cash flow tax accounting. reference to this paper should be made as follows: nerudov d. and bohuov h. 2009 the application of an accounting standard for smes int. j. liability and scientific enquiry vol. 2 no. 2 pp.233246. biographical notes: danue nerudov phd in finance mendel university brno master in finance mendel university brno is the head of the department of accounting and taxes faculty of business and economics mendel university brno czech republic. hana bohuov phd in economics and management mendel university brno master in economics and management mendel university brno is a scientific assistant at the department of accounting and taxes faculty of business and economics mendel university brno czech republic.1 introductionsmall- and medium-sized enterprises smes comprise a substantial part of thecompanies operating in the european union eu member states. based on the lateststatistics there are 25 million smes operating in 27 member states which representcopyright 2009 inderscience enterprises ltd.234 d. nerudov and h. bohuov99 of all business. these companies create more than 100 million jobs in the eueurostat 2003. in some industry sectors such as textiles or construction they evencreate more than 75 of the jobs. smes are considered the key factor of economicgrowth and employment in the eu. therefore they have received a great deal of attentionin the eu in the last ten years. the structure of the eu 25 business economy by thenumber of persons employed is shown in table 1.table 1 the structure of the eu 25 business economy by the number of persons employedtype of enterprise share on total employment in large 329medium 208small 165micro 298 source: eurostat 2003there are 988 787 smes with less than 250 employees which represent 99.81 ofall the enterprises operating in the czech market czech statistical office 2003. smesemploy 1 961 000 people which represent a 62.21 share of the total employment in theczech republic. the share is even 80 higher than the other sectors of the nationaleconomy agriculture 85 and restaurant services 89.34. for this reason smes alsoplay a very important role in the czech republic not only in the area of employment butalso in the economy as a whole. the increase in the importance of smes in the eu economy has propelled theeuropean commission to commission several studies such as com 2001582 final andcom 2005532 final in this area. these studies have dealt with the smes position inthe internal market and have identified the obstacles which these types of enterprisesface while operating in the internal market. the existence of obstacles mainly in theform of 25 different accounting and tax systems which generate disproportionate highcompliance costs for smes in comparison with large enterprises is the reason whysmes are less involved in cross-border activities and operate less in the internal marketin comparison with large enterprises. the studies have revealed that smes operatemainly in the domestic national markets. it seems that in todays globalised worlda higher involvement of smes in cross-border activities and its higher operation on theinternal market could bring an increase in their competitiveness and performance whichwould remarkably influence the economy and growth of the eu as a whole. the aims of the paper are to evaluate the exposure draft ed of internationalfinancial reporting standards ifrs for smes and design some modifications of smefinancial reporting harmonisation. the theoretical background of the paper presents theobjectives of sme financial reporting harmonisation and the efforts of the europeancommission to harmonise the area of corporate taxation and introduce the recommendedtaxation models of eu companies. this paper contains a research on the implementationused in harmonising sme financial reporting. the full ifrs is transformed for smes bythe simplification of some standards and by the omission of irrelevant standards. finallythe paper summarises the results of the research and suggests alternative solutions. the application of an accounting standard for smes 2352 the characteristics of smesat present various definitions which have been developed for application in differentcountries can be found. the criteria often used for classifying enterprises are turnoverthe number of employees capital base profits etc. whether an enterprise appears to belarge medium or small differs widely across the countries and depends on their degree ofdevelopment and the general scale of economic activity.1 according to the organizationfor economic cooperation and development oecd 2005 the characteristics ofsmes reflect not only economic but also the cultural and social dimensions of a country.the paper uses the definition of smes which has been introduced in the eu by theadoption of the commission recommendation no. 2003/361/ec. table 2 shows thedefinition of smes used by the world bank and european commission.table 2 the definition of sme by the world bank and european commission commission recommendationenterprise world bank 2003/361/ecmicro less than ten employees assets lower less than ten employees turnover and than usd100000 balance less than eur2 millionsmall less than 50 employees turnover and less than 50 employees turnover and assets lower than usd3 million balance sheet less than eur10 millionmedium less than 300 employees turnover and less than 250 employees turnover less assets lower than usd15 million than eur50 million and balance less than eur43 millionthere is at present relatively little cross-country experience with generalised approachesto smes taxation and accounting. on the other hand there are available literatureon the challenges faced in designing tax regimes for smes. different accounting andtax systems which trigger high compliance costs represent the barrier for smes wishingto take part in cross-border activities in the eu. the efforts to unify the accounting systems of the eu member states are connectedwith the establishment of the european economic community eec the harmonisationof accounting and taxes is confirmed in the treaty of rome signed in 1957. the aim wasto coordinate the protective rules of companies not only in the interest of shareholdersand third parties creditors employees but also in the interest of equal competitiveconditions and equal business relations in the member states. the first harmonisation efforts in the area of accounting were accomplishedby the adoption of directives fourth directive no. 78/660/eec seventh directiveno. 83/349/eec and eighth directive no. 84/253/eec. they create the code of euaccounting legislation and represent the basic harmonisation tool of the europeancommission. these directives comprise elements from the continental legal systemtypified by germany or france as well as the elements from the anglo-saxon system.both approaches differ mainly in the area of financial statements arrangements. the most important directive in the area of accounting is represented by thefourth directive which concerns the financial statements of large and medium-sizedcapital companies. the directive reflects the compromises between the continental andanglo-saxon approaches the structure and form of financial statements are variable andits final form is left to national competence.236 d. nerudov and h. bohuov since the 1970s the international accounting standards committee iasc hasplayed a very important role in the area of accounting harmonisation. the iasc wasfollowed in 2001 by the international accounting standards board iasb which wasasked to create unified international accounting standards ias and later the ifrs. the efforts to harmonise taxation systems for smes within the eu have startedmainly in 2001 when the european commission introduced the green paper whichsurveyed the tax obstacles for the companies in the internal market. until that timethe european commission was always trying to harmonise or coordinate the system ofdirect taxation in general without any special emphasis on smes. after the publicationof the abovementioned study in 2001 the european commission suggested fourpossible models of corporate tax harmonisation.2 one of them home state taxationhst was aimed at smes. under that system the companies will use for thetaxation of their european activities the rules which are valid in the country where thecompany has a seat or headquarters. hst is voluntary companies could opt to usedomestic taxation rules or not. the model does not represent harmonisation for under this system 27 differentnational taxation systems would still exist. the application of the model could alsoincrease tax competition in order to attract the companies that would tax their profitsfrom the european activities in the country. the european commission has prepared thepilot project under which the model should be tested for five years in selected countries.however no member state applied to participate therefore the commission turned itsattention to a second model the common consolidated corporate tax base ccctb.at present the ccctb represents the priority of the european commission the draft ofthe ccctb directive should be finished by the end of 2008. the problem is that themodel is mainly aimed at large companies and will probably not be reachable for smesfor details see nerudov 2007. at present the directives connected with accounting are undergoing the revision.the aims are to adopt the directives to the requirements connected with theinternalisation of the business environment and harmonise the directives with ifrs.in 2003 directive no. 2003/51/ec was adopted which enables the member states whichdo not apply ias/ifrs on all companies to use the similar financial reporting systems. the situation in the area of accounting harmonisation is solved for large companieslisted on the world stock markets. smes have a legal obligation to prepare financialstatements in accordance with a set of accounting principles accepted in their country.those statements are available to creditors suppliers and the government in theircountry but they could be difficult to understand for creditors suppliers and those inother countries. the financial statements of smes that are comparable from one country to thenext are needed for the following reasons. firstly financial institutions make loans acrossborders and operate on a multinational level. secondly vendors want to evaluate thefinancial health of buzzers in other countries before they sell goods or services on credit.credit rating agencies try to develop ratings uniformly across borders. furthermoremany smes have overseas suppliers and use a suppliers financial statement to assess theprospects of a viable long-term business relationship. venture capital firms also providefunding to smes across borders. many smes have external investors who are not involved in the day-to-daymanagement of the entity. global accounting standards for general-purpose financialstatements and the resulting comparability are especially important when those external the application of an accounting standard for smes 237investors are located in a different jurisdiction from the entity and when they haveinterests in other smes. moreover global standards also improve the consistency in auditquality and facilitate education and training. on the other hand good accounting andmore disclosures add to smes burdens rather than reduce them smes are also oftenconcerned about the competitive harmfulness of greater transparency. the benefit of global financial reporting standards is not limited to enterprises whosesecurities are traded in public capital markets. smes and those who use their