The accounting role in determining the Corporate Tax Base in India

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the role of the accounting of Indian companies in the determination of the corporate income tax law. For this purpose, it studies Indian legal structures such as the Corporate Income Tax Law, the Accounting Law, and the Constitutional Law. Results show that accounting legislation assumed the IASB directives to develop the Indian Accounting Standards, presenting a set of individual accounting norms. Nevertheless, they have the main goal to assist the preparation of the financial statements to help investors make economic decisions, and they do not have any role in the legal entities' taxation domain. The corporate income tax law does not assume accounting concepts for business tax determination, legal dispositions prefer the express clarification of all the elements in the tax calculation, representing a duplication of legal dispositions.