ABSTRACT

This paper describes a brief evolution of IFRS and its benefits. It then explains the organized hypocrisy of firms that, on the one hand, eulogized the importance of IFRS and quality financial reporting while, on the other hand, using corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development as a form of earnings management to depress profits, so that a firm’s share of fair tax is not paid to the State; as such there is some form of organized hypocrisy. This article also explains what can be done to address tax avoidance. Since the precursor of tax avoidance is earnings management, a simple cosmetic earnings management is analyzed using Benford’s Law for a public-listed Cambodian firm. This paper aims to illuminate that once cosmetic earnings management occurs, a grander scale of earnings management may occur for tax avoidance purposes, which, while legal, is unethical. This study sheds some light on the discourse of tax avoidance, which may become rampant among Cambodian firms in the future.

Keywords: IFRS; CSR; Sustainable development; Earnings management; Tax avoidance; Organisational culture; Benford’s Law