Authors: Theofanis Karagiorgos, Grigorios Lazos, Alkiviadis Karagiorgos, Nikolaos Leontiadis

Title: Accounting, Auditing and Transparency, Addressing the issues of Greek society

Abstract

In modern business and tax environment of Greece after the long and painful period of an economic recession, the views on transparency and their relations with the concepts of tax and accounting illiteracy are likely to have been affected by the past years. We rely on the assumption that strong fluctuations in business and household inputs may have affected the three-fold of transparency, taxation and accounting. Transparency is a concept that has become essential in business operations and certification in recent years. It is known that accounting science and transparency always work together while, taxation is expected to be governed by transparency principles.

Through the distribution of questionnaires an attempt is made to analyze the viewpoint of citizens regarding auditors, tax authorities and the economic environment. The significance of the results is contained in the fact that accounting knowledge does not hold the expected position in our model. At the same time, it looks like the economic and political environment is creating a correlation with objectivity of both citizens and auditors. Thusly, the treatment of auditing and accounting as tools to improve transparency and the financial standing of a country is set under discussion for possible innovative tactics regarding the accounting education of citizens.