On the tax-accounting linkage in the European emerging context

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate stakeholders’ salience on accounting and in particular to assess the magnitude of state influence in Romania, an emerging context. Design/methodology/approach - – This research integrates stakeholders’ theory and an empirical approach based on a survey administrated to professional accountants as preparers of accounts on the financial reporting market. Findings - – The findings confirm the hypothesis of Mitchellet al.(1997) that the importance of stakeholders is high if attributes like power, legitimacy and claims urgency are perceived as current. In the Romanian emergent context, for the period 1991-2010, a relatively strong tax-accounting linkage is still identified according to Lambet al.’s (1998) hierarchy. However, as compared to the absolute dominance observed for the early post-communist stage, the state holds the second position in terms of values of stakeholder attributes, after the shareholders. Practical implications - – An increased influence of the accounting bodies, academics and business representatives, who should communicate effectively and constructively with the public structures with respect to enforcement of accounting regulations and the type of organizations involved. The higher focus on IFRS in the EU and in Romania and the evolution of Romanian economic and legal structures lead to the reassessment of the usefulness of IFRS, at least in the case of certain types of organizations. This is also due to the fact that the new IASB framework takes into consideration other types of stakeholders than (actual) shareholders along with the providers of finance from the entity and stewardship perspective. Originality/value - – This paper argues that one of the factors of state influence in accounting is the tax-accounting linkage who is still occurs in this context in present. Also, refers to another factor that caused the watering down of the state’ position, namely, the growing impact of IFRS on Romanian financial reporting.