Abstract
Since 1970, the European Union has developed an accounting model founded in legal and civil bases under the influence of the roman and german culture. Nevertheless, since 2002, she adopted the international accounting rules created by the International Accounting Standards Board to establish the consolidated accounts of the listed holdings. These rules presents a financial culture leading to separate law and accounting. The identification of the object observed by the accounting allows to verify this statement. European law assimilate law subject—limited companies—to the accounting representation object and the IFRS rules proceeds differently because they untie the legal concept and the object represented through a non legal concept: the accounting entity. Both accounting systems are not incompatibles because modern law looks to nuance or push around the greats intellectual constructions allowing to built the relation between law and accounting: legal personality, heritage or limited liability of associates of a company.
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Notes
- 1.
Directives 78/660/EEC of the Council of July 25, 1978 on the annual accounts of certain types of companies and 83/349/EEC of the Council of June 13, 1983 on consolidated accounts, repealed in 2013 and replaced by directive 2013/34/EU of June 26, 2013 of the European Parliament and the Council relating to the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements and the related reports of certain forms of business, amending Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and the Council and repealing Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC of the Council.
- 2.
Regulation 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and the Council of 19 July, 2002 on the application of international accounting standards.
- 3.
The abbreviation IAS refers to the “International Accounting Standards”. These are the standards published by the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) between 1973 and 2001 before the change of the governance and statutes intervened in 2001. Since 2002, the standards published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), successor to the IASC, are now called IFRS, i.e. “International Financial Reporting Standards”. Some IAS standards still remain in the international accounting repository beside the more recent IFRS standards without the difference in denomination having any effect on their scope.
- 4.
It is, for example, possible to conceive that the dividend is determined from a cash flows statement and that the taxable base be transferred to the level of a group, as is also the case with the mechanism of fiscal integration (Code Général des Impôts, French General Tax Code, article 223 A).
- 5.
The equality of creditors ceases therefore when there are “legitimate reasons for preference”: Civil Code, supra article 2285, second proposal.
- 6.
Directive 78/660/EEC, supra, article 31, § 1 and directive 83/349 supra, art. 29, § 2, a), specifically referring to the evaluation methods applied to the company accounts of the undertaking that prepares the consolidated accounts.
- 7.
Directive 2003/51/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 18 June, 2003 amending the Directives 78/660/EEC, 83/349/EEC, 86/635/EEC and 91/674/EEC of the Council on annual accounts and consolidated accounts of certain types of companies, banks and other financial institutions and insurance undertakings, art. 1st, § 2. See today: Directive 2013/34/EU supra, article 6, § 1 h).
- 8.
Directive No. 90/605/EEC of the Council of the November 8, 1990 amending Directives No. 78/660/EEC and No. 83/349/EEC concerning the annual accounts and consolidated accounts respectively, with regard to the scope of their application.
- 9.
On the notion of cessation of payments, see: Code de commerce, article L. 631-1 supra.
- 10.
In this connection, see for example: Cour de cassation, Commercial Division, 20 May, 2003, No. 99-17.092, Dalloz 2003, p. 2623, note B. Dondero; Review of. Companies 2003, p. 479, note J. -F. Barbieri.
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Pasqualini, F. (2016). In Search of the Purpose of Accounting Representation. In: Bensadon, D., Praquin, N. (eds) IFRS in a Global World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28225-1_12
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