This research examines how experience and missing information affect judgments of tax return preparers. Tax return preparers may often be faced with the problem of incomplete information, and their responses to this problem may be conditioned by whether or not they recognize information is missing. Based on the Holland et al.'s cognitive theory of induction as applied to tax judgment by Marchant et al., it was hypothesized that experienced tax preparers would correctly classify more items as to their relevance to a specific tax issue than novice tax preparers. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had no relevant information missing would be greater than the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had relevant information missing and were prompted that information was missing. Lastly, it was hypothesized that prompting that relevant information was missing would have a greater effect on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with lesser specific experience than it would on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with greater specific experience. The results suggest that experienced tax preparers do recognize the relevance of information to a greater degree than novice tax preparers. There was no significant …

The corporate form that developed in the early 20th century created enormous pressure for corporate governance mechanisms to curb the power of corporate managers. Berle and Means, legal pluralists, warned about concentrating economic power in the hands of a small but powerful class of professional managers. They claimed this "new form of absolutism" required governmental oversight and viewed boards of directors as part of management, rather than monitors for shareholders. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that corporations establish a special board committee, made up of "nonofficer members" in response to the McKesson & Robbins scandal of the late 1930s. My dissertation examines the evolution of the U.S. corporate audit committee through three specific time periods: (1) 1920-1954; (2) 1955-1986; and (3) 1987 to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. My purpose is to determine if evolution of the audit committee throughout these periods has been a reform continually couched in symbolism or whether the audit committee concept has evolved into real reform, allowing proper corporate governance and mitigation of unchecked corporate power. My analysis is a traditional empirical analysis, relying on both primary and secondary sources to develop a coherent ordering of facts. I use narrative …

The step transaction doctrine is one of the judicial doctrines used by the courts to interpret tax law. The doctrine requires that a series of transactions be treated as a single transaction if the transactions share a single, integrated purpose. Many authors believe there is a great deal of uncertainty as to when the doctrine will be applied. Uncertainty and inconsistency in the application of tax law add to the complexity of the law. One of the most complex areas of tax law is Subchapter C of the Internal Revenue Code, which governs corporate formations, redemptions, liquidations, distributions, and reorganizations. The purpose of this study was to determine if the step transaction doctrine is being consistently applied by the Tax Court and what variables affect the judges' decision in these cases. Hierarchical logit analysis was used to derive a full model and two restricted models. The full model was used to determine the predictive power of the variables that were identified and to explain the extent to which the individual variables affect the judges' decisions. One restricted model was used to test temporal stability. The other was used to test consistency when different issues of tax law are involved. The …

The problem with which this study is concerned is that of determining income concepts employed by members of the agricultural sector to determine change in equity of the owner of an entity. A secondary purpose was an investigation of the factors which influenced the decision model selected to determine income. Major findings of the study indicated that financial data is used differently by members of the sector and the accountant. Respondents did not agree among themselves about the information that should be used in income measurement, nor were they consistent in use of a given concept. Finally, evidence was presented which indicated that changes in terms used to ask for change in equity leads to different responses.

Private philanthropy is important in America. In 1985, philanthropy totaled almost 80 billion dollars. Philanthropy is partially a function of price. Absent a tax benefit, the price of charitable giving is unity. When tax benefits are available, the price of cash giving is one minus the marginal tax rate of the donor. Philanthropy is not evenly distributed among all classes of organizations. Changes in tax cost bring about changes in the distribution of gifts among organizations. Predictions have been made of a six to twelve billion dollar decline in individual giving as a result of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The question is, "Whose ox gets gored?" In 1962, the Internal Revenue Service collected data directly linking itemized charitable contributions to class of donee organization. Prior works by Taussig, Schwartz, Feldstein, and Clotfelter have been principally based on this data. Their works document differing elasticities of price on charitable giving. The current research gathered 1985 data on the relationships between income, price, and charitable donee for 298 Dallas County, Texas, taxpayers. Data was obtained from selected certified public accountants in Dallas County who prepared income tax returns for individuals as part of their practice. Two hundred fifty usable responses …

This dissertation attempts to provide an exploratory structure to respond to, and tries to resolve, an existing void in international accounting research. The void is a lack of coherently structured, nation-specific, descriptive research to investigate socio-economic phenomena which may influence financial accounting. This dissertation's salient features include a political economy theory, an exploratory, sociological method, and a case study format. The political economy of accounting, introduced by Tinker [1980] and refined by Cooper and Sherer [1984], emphasizes a persuasive social relations dimension. This theory motivates selection of three countries (the United States, France, and Japan) that appear to have divergent socio-cultural environments. An exploratory and analytical approach of modified (enlarged) exogenism, developed by Smith [1973, 1976] and adapted to accounting by McKinnon [1986], provides an analytic structure for this exploratory investigation. Modified exogenism focuses upon an open, dynamic social system (the process of financial accounting), and provides analysis reflecting four major areas (the environment, intrusive events, intra-system activity, and trans-system activity). After examining the nation-specific financial accounting (socio-economic) structures for each country, an analysis of selected financial disclosures attempts to gain a better understanding of how socio-economic factors have influenced the development of financial accounting. My primary objective is to …

The major thrust of this study is to identify factors that contribute to turnover of black accountants in public accounting and to identify the factors that lead to the success or failure of black accountants. This research was limited to the eight largest national public accounting firms in the United States (the Big Eight). Open-ended questions about the reasons for (1) turnover of black accountants in public accounting firms, (2) success of black accountants in public accounting firms, and (3) failure of black accountants in public accounting firms were presented to three groups of respondents. The population includes (1) personnel managers and supervising personnel in Big Eight firms, (2) black accountants who are either presently or were previously employed by Big Eight firms, and (3) accounting faculty members at predominantly black institutions.

This research analyzes the relationship between specific firm characteristics and firms' settlement/replacement plan decisions under Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 88 (FAS88). I examined firms that effected either (i) a settlement of their pension obligations without a benefit plan termination or (ii) a partial termination with a replacement benefit plan or (iii) a complete termination with no replacement of a benefit plan.

Typical accounting studies attempting to explain accounting method choice employ positive theoretical hypotheses and test for association between adoption method or adoption timing and economic measures that focus upon specific firm stakeholders. Such studies addressing the adoption and impact of SFAS 87, "Employer's Accounting for Pensions," yield mixed and contradicting results. Various researchers have suggested that traditional economic analysis often fails to capture important explanatory variables and is far too simplistic. The purpose of this study is to expand analysis by evaluating a particular accounting choice by means of three different characterizations. SFAS 106, "Employers' Accounting for Postretirement Benefits Other than Pensions," allows management to choose between two very different methods of adopting the standard. The principal question explored in this study is: why did managers of firms that employ defined benefit postretirement plans for benefits other than pensions choose to adopt SFAS 106 using a particular method? The research question is explored by means of three different characterizations: 1) a traditional economic characterization; 2) a sociopolitical characterization); and 3) a joint decision characterization. Logit methodology is used with method of SFAS 106 adoption as the binary dependent variable of interest. Results indicate that all three characterizations are important in …

This empirical study is concerned with whether the oil and gas reserve value data reported by petroleum producers have been utilized by investors. Reporting reserve value data based on a present value approach is the initial step toward the development of the Securities and Exchange Commission's new accounting method called "Reserve Recognition Accounting" (RRA) for oil and gas producers. Experimentation with this new accounting concept in the oil and gas industry has been adopted as a tentative resolution of the long-standing controversy over valuation of oil and gas reserves and the measure of income from oil and gas exploration. Evidence gathered in this research will be valuable to the SEC in its efforts to assess the usefulness of RRA. This dissertation assumes capital market efficiency and address two specific questions. First, do investors behave as if the reported end-of-year reserve value data are effective signals for pricing securities of oil and gas producers? Second, has the SEC-mandated reserve value disclosures induced any response in the capital market? Two research designs were employed to permit extensive investigation of these two questions.