Outsourcing is an efficient way to reduce a company’s costs and is often necessary to remain competitive. However, the practice has had its critics. This article summarizes the outsourcing debate that has been going on in the United States and offers some insights about the practice. Also...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiated a regional accounting certification program in the Russian language several years ago. It started in Central Asia and spread to Russia and a few other former Soviet republics several years later. Headquarters for the...

The present paper is an empirical study, the goal of which is to determine the strength of various arguments that have been used to justify tax evasion and to determine whether results differ based on certain demographic variables. A survey instrument was constructed using a seven-point Likert...

A search of the accounting, trade and ethics literature failed to find a single article that discussed the role that accountants play in assisting in the data gathering process of a trade investigation. Yet there are serious ethical issues that need to be addressed. Certain aspects of trade...

Estate, inheritance and gift taxes are minor forms of raising revenue. They are related, since they all deal with the taking of accumulated wealth. Estate taxes are levied on the estate of a deceased person. Inheritance taxes are levied by most states on those who receive the property of a...

This paper raises some ethical questions about the value added tax. The three main ethical problems with it are that governments have to resort to coercion to collect it, it is a hidden tax and it is an inefficient form of taxation, which violates utilitarian ethics

More than 100 countries are competing for foreign direct investment. One of the factors that adversely affects the ability to attract foreign capital is the lack of credibility of reported financial information. This barrier is especially prevalent in transition economies, since they have not...

A number of accounting and auditing certifications require some amount of university education. The AICPA requires its new members to have 150 semester hours of coursework and is pushing the states to adopt the 150-semester hour requirement as a condition of qualifying to take the CPA exam. This...

There is nothing wrong with private groups requiring continuing professional education of their members. Private associations have the right to determine the rules under which they operate. Problems result when these private groups lobby their governments to adopt rules that force people to do...

The fact that social security is a rip-off is becoming more generally known as the system approaches bankruptcy. Like any Ponzi scheme, those who got in early stood to gain. But the system has insurmountable problems. People are living longer due to advances in medicine, so they take money out...