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Accounting for income taxes has become a critically important issue for both financial accounting and income taxation purposes in recent years. However, there is nothing new about the need to account for income taxes for purposes of presenting, or to opine upon, the financial accounts of corporations or other business entities. The process of accounting for tax matters has been a traditional aspect of the responsibilities of finance and taxation officers of business entities, particularly publicly traded corporations, for many years.

The nature of the process has long been familiar. In essence, there are a number of parties in this process: (i) business entities, (ii) tax administrations, (iii) financial accounting standards organizations, (iv) auditors of the business entities, and (v) tax strategists seeking to achieve overall tax/finance results for business entities. Each party has its own interests.

The purpose of this text is to discuss and explain the pertinent elements of the intersection of financial accounting and taxation. The goal is to: (i) articulate the reality of financial accounting and tax compliance in light of the new landscape entities face on such matters today; and (ii) set out a means by which entities can structure their tax planning and financial reporting in a manner to efficiently meet all applicable requirements. Key differentiators in the text are liberal use of numerical examples, excerpts from companies’ financial statements, and opinions on murky issues due to the complex and dynamic interdependence of financial accounting and income tax principles.