Relationship between legislation and accounting errors from the point of view of business representatives in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Research background: Previous studies have demonstrated that providing relevant information to users is positively affected by higher quality of accounting standards and adhering to ethical rules and accounting principles by accounting professionals. On the other hand, there are a lot of cases when the law was broken. The most common reason for committing financial statements fraud include increasing stock prices, getting loans from bank or avoiding payment of taxes. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to evaluate both the relationship between using of legislation and accounting errors rate in the financial statements as well as the possible using of creative accounting from the point of view of enterprises and non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic. Methods: Among the quantitative research methods the questionnaire was used. The questionnaires were sent out to randomly 201 selected enterprises and non-profit organization. The survey was conducted from September 2017 to the end of January 2018. The data were analyzed by means of the tools of descriptive statistics and the chi-square goodness of fit test. The research questions sought to investigate whether Czech Accounting Standards helped in all areas of accounting and reporting and avoiding of errors in financial statements, and whether the respondents encountered fraudulent procedures in compiling financial statements. Findings & Value added: The results indicated that using Czech Accounting Standards was perceived as a useful tool in solving all situations in areas of accounting and avoiding accounting errors. Moreover, it was proved that the volume and frequency of errors were not significant in financial statements.