Creative Accounting Concept and Measuring the Knowledge Levels of Accounting Professionals: Sivas Province Application

Abstract

After accounting scandals in the early 2000s, fraudulent financial reporting for misleading information in the financial statements and related creative accounting issues have come to the fore academically just like any other areas. In the literature, the concept of creative accounting is defined as the situation in which the financial position differs from the present state by using the deficiencies or the flexibility of various regulations related to accounting practices and by changing the presentation of the financial statements with the formal or numerical changes made on the financial statements. The objective of this study is to measure the level of knowledge of accounting professionals about the concept of creative accounting and the applicability of this concept and determine whether creative accounting practices have an impact on financial statements. In this respect, it is aimed to contribute to the literature by applying the survey on the subject. As a result of this study, 39.2% of the professional members have no knowledge of the concept and practice of creative accounting but 30.8% of them have been offered to change their financial statements in a positive or negative way and this is due to show that 42.5% of the tax base is low. This has led to the conclusion that the professional members ' conceptual knowledge of creative accounting practices is not sufficient.