Perceptions of Czech Professional Accountants on Current Trends in Reporting

Abstract

International convergence of accounting standards is not a new idea. The concept of convergence first arose in the late 1950s in response to post World War II economic integration and related increases in cross-border capital flows. Initial efforts focused on harmonization, or reducing differences among accounting principles used inmajor capital markets around the world. By the 1990s, the notion of harmonization was replaced by the concept of convergence, or the development of a single set of high-quality, international accounting standards that would be used in all major capital markets.The Czech Republic is representative of emerging economies from the central and eastern European (CEE) area with the traditional linkage of the accounting system to the tax system and application of the prudence principle in accounting. That is why fair value is not as widely applied under international financial reporting standards (IFRS) practices. The main objective of this research is to measure the perception of the professional accountants on current trends in international accounting and how it might influence local Czech accounting practices. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared. This survey was conducted among selected Czech companies in spring 2013. The research was targeting companies with clear audit opinions. The questionnaire was sent to 4,082 companies. The return rate was 9.1 % and we analyzed 371 valid questionnaires. The analytical part of this survey, conducted online via Google forms, was divided into two Int Adv Econ Res (2015) 21:135–136 DOI 10.1007/s11294-014-9507-7