Modelling the links between tax and financial reporting: A longitudinal examination of norway over 30 years up to IFRS adoption

The operational links between tax and financial reporting vary on a continuum from country to country and from period to period. We propose a model for how the links vary over time in developed Western countries. This takes account of competing purposes for accounting, and the mutual reactions of taxation and financial reporting authorities. We illustrate the model using the case of Norway over a 30-year period up to the adoption of IFRS. This has the incidental benefit of analysing the operational links for Norway, which has not been done systematically before, at three dates. We also put Norway into the context of four other countries by adopting and somewhat enhancing existing methodology. We show that Norway has moved from a 'continental' position to one that exceeds the disconnection of tax from financial reporting found in the USA or the UK. We raise several research questions related to the generalisability of our model.