Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Salahudeen Saeed Title: EVIDENCE ON ETHICAL TAX PRACTICES BY COMPANIES LISTED ON THE GHANA STOCK EXCHANGE Abstract: The aim of this paper is to gain an understanding of tax behavior of companies, particularly multinationals. It draws on previously designed responsible and transparent tax behavior principles, guidelines, scorecards and benchmarks. The author examined 37 Ghanaian listed companies. The companies surveyed were grouped into three branches of industry: Consumer and Industrial Products and Services (n=17); Energy, Utilities and Resources (n=8) and Financial Services (n=12). The results show that Ghanaian listed companies are not fiscally responsible and transparent. The overall percentage of total points scored by the top 10 companies is 45%. Besides, overwhelming majority (73%) of the companies scored below the minimum amount (0-20 points). What is more, an overall transparency rating on the six principles of good tax governance is 29%. These insights have several implications for tax authorities and moral investors Classification-JEL: H25, H26 Keywords: Ethics, Responsible Taxpayer, Tax Transparency Journal: Review of Business and Finance Studies Pages: 1-12 Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Year: 2020 File-URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/rbfstu/rbfs-v11n1-2020/RBFS-V11N1-2020-1.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:ibf:rbfstu:v:11:y:2020:i:1:p:1-12 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Umapathy Ananthanarayanan Author-Name: Peter Harris Author-Name: Steve Shapiro Title: THE IMPACT OF NEW LEASE STANDARDS UNDER US GAAP AND IFRS ON FINANCIAL RATIOS Abstract: Most of the world financial market economies have adopted International Reporting Standards (IFRS) as the necessary framework for financial statements. In the United States, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is still required, but the adoption of IFRS has the support of many accounting firms and professional organizations and is under consideration by the SEC. The revised lease guidelines under GAAP and IFRS shows a similar effect on the financial ratios and eliminate off-balance sheet financing. This case study illustrates the differences in the treatment of leases and the impact of these differences on financial statements and selected financial ratios after the year 2019. In a given situation, students use GAAP financial statements and prepare an IFRS based balance sheet, cash flow statement, and income statement. It is necessary to understand both the revised GAAP and IFRS rules regarding leases to address our case study. Our case study is designed to be used at undergraduate and graduate levels and courses like Intermediate Accounting, Accounting Theory, Analysis of Financial Statements. The instructor/s can offer our case study as an individual case study or as a group project Classification-JEL: M4, M41, M42, M48, M49 Keywords: US GAAP, IFRS, Right-of-use Asset, Capital Lease, Operating Lease Financial Ratios Journal: Review of Business and Finance Studies Pages: 13-28 Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Year: 2020 File-URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/rbfstu/rbfs-v11n1-2020/RBFS-V11N1-2020-2.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:ibf:rbfstu:v:11:y:2020:i:1:p:13-28 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Brent McCallum Author-Name: Christopher McCallum Author-Name: Rafael Romero Title: ACCOUNTING FOR LEASES: UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF ASC 842, LEASES Abstract: The case seeks to contrast the lease accounting under the previous standard (ASC 840) and the guidance to be implemented in 2019 (ASC 842). The case is relevant for accounting majors especially those taking Intermediate Financial Accounting II. It is also relevant for business and finance majors dealing with corporate financial statements. It is also useful for professionals in practice/industry interested in how the new rules will affect their company. In the context of a hypothetical CFO and finance function of a domestic airline company, the case requires the performance of a web search and the procurement of information on former and current lease accounting. The case also requires the write-up of responses to questions comparing and contrasting the old and new guidance under ASC 840 and ASC 842,respectively; and, the creation of Right-of-Use Asset (ROUA) and lease amortization schedules. The paper is suitable for undergraduate classes. Individuals or groups may be required to simply write-up their answers to the questions posed or present their research to the class for discussion and comment, especially with regard to the last, optional question. Completion of the case should require 5-10 hours outside of class. Classroom discussion should be about two hours. Classification-JEL: M41, M42 Keywords: Lease Accounting, Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 842, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 16, Airline Industry, Off-Balance Sheet Financing Journal: Review of Business and Finance Studies Pages: 29-40 Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Year: 2020 File-URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/rbfstu/rbfs-v11n1-2020/RBFS-V11N1-2020-3.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:ibf:rbfstu:v:11:y:2020:i:1:p:29-40 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Keith Akiva Lehrer Title: TOWARDS A GENERAL PEDAGOGIC MODEL OF PLAGUES AND PANDEMICS Abstract: Plagues have been recorded, as a natural part of human history, since time immemorial. They have also acted as trigger points for major socio-political change, in Egypt, according to biblical history, and in the world’s then most powerful and advanced civilization of Athens, millennia ago. Quite possibly we are witnessing something of a similar nature: the unleashing of social fissures, plus expectations of radical systemic and/or institutional change, under the pressure of the current plague. This would seem to potentially parallel the Athens crisis in the most powerful, yet currently most vulnerable nation of the world today -the U.S. Athens succumbed to the new superpower Sparta. America seems to be threatened by a similar challenge from our modern world’s second-most superpower, -China. This paper offers a simplified, pedagogic model of the process of plagues, and the stages that humanity invariably has to deal with. In so doing, it is hoped to reduce the opacity of the phenomenon, together with the deceptions foisted on a gullible populace, by official leaders -both authoritarian and democratic. Its simplicity is intended to encourage the youngest in the world, to be able to actively participate in the epidemiological research effort. The traditional response of vast portions of humanity to consider plagues with resignation, as probably Divine retribution for wrong-doing, could thus be reduced, and supplanted by a set of expectations for plague control, based on rational decision-making and empirical research. Advances in science in the past century have encouraged a change in human expectations, regarding health, longevity and disease control. Political and economic evolution are argued not to have kept up with this scientific evolution. The aspiration is that the youngest generation be offered an institutional opportunity, at a global level, to help change the current disequilibrium. Classification-JEL: I10, I13, I15, I18, I20, I31, I38, I39 Keywords: Plagues, Pandemics, History, Coronavirus, Covid-19, Pedagogic Model ,Systemic Change, Institutional Change, Black Lives Matter Journal: Review of Business and Finance Studies Pages: 41-76 Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Year: 2020 File-URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/rbfstu/rbfs-v11n1-2020/RBFS-V11N1-2020-4.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:ibf:rbfstu:v:11:y:2020:i:1:p:41-76 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Benedict E. DeDominicis Title: DEMOCRACY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE SOCIAL IDENTITY DYNAMICS OF EUROPEANIZATION Abstract: This analysis shows how the European integration drive spurs image alteration of national self and other through applying findings from social psychology. It highlights the implications of the EU constraining national polity punishments against civil society actors violating sovereignty-based norms. The EU encourages cross-border activity strategies among the multitude of private sector, interest group and social movement actors. National actors undergo inducements to justify and defend their transnational vested interests domestically and regionally. These incentives motivate European national polity actors to transcend traditional national stereotypical images of self and other when confronting negative social selfimage intra-European comparisons. This study analytically outlines how, instead of engaging in the social psychology of zero-sum social competition, European integration facilitates adopting strategies emphasizing intra-European social mobility and social creativity. Social mobility includes self-identity transformation, legitimated within a framework of being so-called European. The opportunity for pursuit of a strategy of social creativity, i.e. being different but equal in social status, is supported. EU policy making institutions functionally serve to coopt national sovereignty to legitimize social deviance. These institutions accommodate nationalist values while encouraging the perception of deviance as a form of social creativity contributing to the constitution of a European great power identity ideal. Classification-JEL: F02, F5, F52, F53, D74 Keywords: European Union, Nationalism, Social Competition, Social Creativity, Social Deviance, Social Mobility Journal: Review of Business and Finance Studies Pages: 77-109 Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Year: 2020 File-URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/rbfstu/rbfs-v11n1-2020/RBFS-V11N1-2020-5.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:ibf:rbfstu:v:11:y:2020:i:1:p:77-109