Accounting systems

This chapter provides an overview of the differences in financial reporting practices. The chapter further investigates the causes of the differences in accounting systems. The causes seem more attributed to country-specific and are different aspects of the respective country influencing the accounting systems. Culture, legal systems, tax systems, economic and political factors are the prominent ones. Furthermore, this chapter discusses the classification of accounting systems and, specifically, Mueller, Gernon and Meek’s (1994) model of the accounting system. The chapter concludes with a discussion on whether specific accounting rules should apply to all countries with differences in their local environment.