The article examines the market valuation approach using industry market multiples as this method has recently attracted increasing interest from appraisers. It investigates whether constructing one’s own industry market multiples for company valuation which are based on a market approach provides better results than using Damodaran’s market multiples in terms of the resulting valuation accuracy. The study uses a sample of 162 German companies publicly traded in 2010–2019 and analyses some of the most frequently adopted multiples: EV/EBITDA, P/BV and P/E. Moreover, the presented results may guide the appraisers in selecting the most appropriate valuation approach. Based on the statistical error analysis, the results prove better valuation accuracy of the own-built market multiples compared to Damodaran’s multiples. Nevertheless, this study is limited to German listed companies and should not be relied upon with respect to other European markets. Furthermore, its scope is limited to only 15 industries which are listed by Damodaran and subsequently included in the test sample.

A number of indicators can be assessed for a company’s financial health, with indebtedness indicators being one of the important ones. The formation of the financial structure is influenced by a huge number of factors. The subject of this research is the indebtedness of companies in the Transportation and storage industry. The companies come from the V4 countries, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Romania, between 2010 and 2018. In total 25,246 companies are analysed according to their size for medium and large companies. The aim of the research is to find out whether profitability, liquidity, asset structure, non-debt tax shield, GDP growth rate, reference interest rate, and inflation rate affect the level of total, long-term and short-term debt. The main finding is that corporate debt is significantly affected (measured by the value of coefficients) by non-corporate determinants and specifically the development of the reference interest rate. However, if we look at the most numerous determinants, it is profitability. Companies in the selected industry should focus primarily on the various forecasts within the external environment of the company and include them in their analyses when financing their activities.

The article focuses on the new rules for electronic commerce that came into force on 1 July 2021 in all EU Member States. The main goal is to explain these new rules of taxation of consignments of goods from abroad (both from the European Union and third countries) to non-taxable persons and subsequently to calculate the impact of these new rules on the tax revenues of public budgets of the Czech Republic. The assumption set in advance is that the changes in tax legislation will result in an increase in the Czech public budget revenues due to the boosted revenues from value-added tax collected on foreign shipments. Year-on-year, tax revenues from online purchases will undoubtedly increase also due to the growing popularity of online shopping, currently sustained by the ongoing pandemic situation of covid-19. The calculations of the additional value-added tax revenue are based mainly on the data sourced from the Czech Statistical Office and a study carried out for the European Commission. The additional value-added tax revenue is calculated using the three model situations that assess impacts on the tax revenue of public budgets in the Czech Republic. For 2019, these impacts were estimated at between CZK 3.1 and CZK 6.1 billion.

The goal of the article is to analyse determinants of the gender pay gap in selected European countries. For my analysis, I used different types of data published by Eurostat, OECD, the Czech Statistical Office and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic. Determinants have been estimated using multiple regression analysis in selected European countries including the Czech Republic. The article is also focused on the Czech Republic data on the gross average salary in private and public sectors according to gender and administrative regions. Results show that the maternity benefits and a complicated situation in the labour market, where full-time jobs are preferred, and moreover the parental allowances are strong drivers of the gender pay gap in the Czech Republic. This implies that the issue of the gender pay gap in the Czech Republic is rather structural, influenced by the social system and the labour market features. Future research should take into consideration the tax allowances as well (specific tax credits on children and a spouse).

The effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on the level of financial statements comparability was investigated for Russia in the current article. Canada was chosen for comparison due to the close time frame of IFRS adoption, which also allowed comparing the influence of IFRS adoption for both types of economies – well developed and emerging. Initial sample selection had been created from 23 companies that are presented on the stock exchange markets of the particular countries. Each sample contains semi-annual data for four years of the pre-adoption period (2008 to 2011 for Russia, 2007 to 2010 for Canada) in which companies use their home country accounting standards and four years of the post-adoption period (2012 to 2015 for Russia, 2011 to 2014 for Canada) in which companies use IFRS standards. The research was performed on the country level and industry level for both countries. Two measures had been used for the research: earnings-return regression and earnings-cash flow regression. The overall result of the study shows that the application of IFRS improved information comparability between companies only in Canada, while the same was not the case for Russian companies and the cross-country comparability. However, the study confirms an increase in the comparability level in the post-adoption period in such industries as Energy and Basic materials not only between companies inside of the given country but on the cross-country level as well.

The study reveals that unlike SAIs from more affluent countries, the majority of SAIs from poorer countries opt to include in their audits more frequently also elements of the international comparison. The paper also brings attention to the fact that about half of the examined SAIs adopted indicators taken over from the audited entities less frequently, since the audited entities usually did not monitor or evaluate the given area. Half of the examined SAIs also provide no independent assurance that the performance indicators published by the audited entities are reliable. In addition, only a minority of the performance audits that assess the economy and effectiveness also get about to address – at least in general terms – the level of efficiency. The authorial recommendation leans towards boosting the SAIs’ transparency concerning the review and publication of the implementation of their recommendations, focusing especially on the implementation side that relates to key audit recommendations. From the methodology perspective, the study makes use the questionnaire survey, the governed structured interview, content analysis of documents and comparison as the research methods.