An area of concern to tax policymakers is the role of third-party preparers in Income tax reporting. This research examines the degree of consistency in judgments of preparers subject to differing degrees of governmental regulation. Economic theory of regulation suggests that CPAs, who are subject to a higher degree of government regulation, would be expected to recommend and justify more pro-taxpayer positions in ambiguous areas of tax law than would unlicensed preparers. This hypothesis was tested by administering a set of tax cases with a high degree of uncertainty regarding the correct tax status to groups of CPA and non-CPA tax practitioners. CPAs were found to be consistently more pro-taxpayer than were non-CPAs

[An area of concern to tax policymakers is the role of third-party preparers in income tax reporting. This research examines the degree of consistency in judgments of preparers subject to differing degrees of governmental regulation. Economic theory of regulation suggests that CPAs, who are subject to a higher degree of government regulation, would be expected to recommend and justify more pro-taxpayer positions in ambiguous areas of tax law than would unlicensed preparers. This hypothesis was tested by administering a set of tax cases with a high degree of uncertainty regarding the correct tax status to groups of CPA and non-CPA tax practitioners. CPAs were found to be consistently more pro-taxpayer than were non-CPAs

This study examines the choice of a regulatory accounting principle (RAP) in contrast to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) with respect to loan loss recognition in the savings and loan Industry. RAP was permitted by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board for Savings and Loans (S&Ls) In the early 1980s. Many S&L's selected this alternative to GAAP. We examine four factors, conditioned by accounting regulations in the S&L Industry setting, hypothesized to explain the accounting choice. All of the factors ere significant In logistic regression tests in which the choice of RAP or GAAP was the dependent variable. The results are consistent with the conclusion that S&Ls chose to violate GAAP when regulatory constraints induced e conflict between GAAP requirements and the economic welfare of the firm

[This study examines the choice of a regulatory accounting principle (RAP) in contrast to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) with respect to loan loss recognition in the savings and loan industry. RAP was permitted by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board for Savings and Loans (S&Ls) in the early 1980s. Many S&Ls selected this alternative to GAAP. We examine four factors, conditioned by accounting regulations in the S&L industry setting, hypothesized to explain the accounting choice. All of the factors are significant in logistic regression tests in which the choice of RAP or GAAP was the dependent variable. The results are consistent with the conclusion that S&Ls chose to violate GAAP when regulatory constraints induced a conflict between GAAP requirements and the economic welfare of the firm