Abstract
Due to limited resources and information asymmetry, the responsibility for tax compliance and compliance with other regulations is in practice often transferred from clients to their accountants. Consequently, the unethical attitudes and behavior of accountants can significantly impact the compliance of clients, through advice on how to operate in accordance with the regulations or advice on how to exploit the existing regulatory framework. The main goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of existing research questions, methodological approaches and most important findings regarding accountants’ (non)compliance with regulations and ethical and other principles of the accounting profession. Special attention is given to the existing literature findings regarding ethical beliefs and factors affecting the (un)ethical conduct of accounting professionals.
The findings presented in this paper do not allow for an unequivocal determination of the determinants of ethical beliefs and behavior of professional accountants, but they do indicate great importance of adequately focused educational measures, creating adequate incentives to resist pressure to behave unethically, and a high level of familiarity of accountants with the best practices when providing accounting services, for which codes of ethics and their consistent application are of great importance.
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