Arsen Djatej

The Ethics of Tax Evasion: A Survey of Hispanic Opinion

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 and distributed to 316 business students at a university in South Texas. The 18 arguments were ranked in terms of strength, from strongest to weakest. Comparisons were also made according to gender, age, and academic major to determine if the viewpoints for these demographics were significantly different. Academic major was the only demographic variable where significant differences in opinion were found. For some of the 18 arguments justifying tax evasion, accounting students were significantly more averse to tax evasion than were business and economics majors. Some arguments justifying tax evasion were stronger than others. The strongest arguments for evading taxes were in cases where the government engaged in human rights abuses. Other strong arguments were in cases where the tax system was perceived as unfair, where tax rates were too high, where government officials were corrupt or where tax funds were not spent wisely.

The Second World War and Soviet accounting

This article examines the rapid changes to Soviet accounting practice during World War II. The adaptation of the pre-war accounting system was required to meet the extraordinary demands of a conflict that saw as much as 40 percent of the national population under German occupation. Many large production facilities were rapidly relocated out of the war zone to the Urals, Central Asia, and the Far East. Soviet wartime accounting was focused only on contributing to victory. Sometimes this meant establishing extremely simplified allocation procedures; sometimes this meant creating new accounts for enterprise assets temporarily under enemy control, and sometimes this meant extensive and thorough procedures to safeguard economic resources and military property. For scholars the war provided an example of how accounting can rapidly evolve to meet changing national priorities.

History and the Russian accounting transition

The pace of Russian accounting reform towards international accounting standards has been a disappointment to many. Twentieth-century Russian history can help to provide some explanation for this slow pace. The corruption and deception of the Communist era has not given post-Communist Russia a tradition of transparency with which to approach accounting reform. The Yeltsin era has had many fundamental economic reforms initiated; however, the legacy of corruption and bureaucratic interference has continued. This continuation of corruption has discredited market economy-based reforms in the eyes of many Russians. This continuation of corruption has thus negatively impacted the pace of accounting reform. It is not clear if current announced deadlines for the adoption of international accounting standards will be met. However, it is expected that authentic accounting reform will take place eventually.

The Growth of Industry Web Portals: Framework and Guidelines

This article proposes a growth framework for industry web portals which present a new opportunity in the Internet business. The proposed framework contains five stages: business plan stage, website development stage, attraction stage, entrenchment stage, and defense stage. The actions to be taken and strategies to be applied in each stage are set out. Two industry web portals are investigated in detail. The two examples illustrate the applicability of the proposed growth framework to the real world. The combination of a conceptual growth framework and the application of this conceptual framework to two real world examples yields a set of guidelines based in large part on lessons learned from the two examples. Thus, this paper provides a concept-based growth framework and a set of real world-based guidelines that will very possibly provide a practical benefit to industry web portal business practitioners.