Impacts of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance

This study aims to examine the impacts of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on tax evasion and tax avoidance in Iran by referring to the professional accounting and tax opinion of the Iranian Certified Public Accountants (ICPA) and Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA).

The impacts of IFRS on tax evasion and tax avoidance were obtained through a questionnaire on a five-option Likert scale. The designed questionnaire was distributed among 334 members of ICPA and INTA, of which 184 were suitable for use in this study. Structural equation method (SEM) was used to investigate the effects of specific variables, and partial least squares (PLS) approach was used to analyze the model.

Findings indicated IFRS has significant negative effect on the prevention of tax evasion, and significant positive effect on the prevention of tax avoidance. The impact of satisfaction of taxpayers, as a moderator in the above relationships is not significant. Acceptance of IFRS has significant positive effect on increasing the reliability of financial statements. Increasing the reliability of financial statements, as an intermediary variable, is not significant for tax evasion, but is significant for tax avoidance.

IFRS has important application in understanding tax evasion and tax avoidance, but to be more acceptable, its restrictions must be identified and resolved.