Bridging the Reporting Gap: A Proposal for More Informative Reconciling of Book and Tax Income

摘要

In this paper we review the history and purpose of the corporation income tax return'sSchedule M-1 in light of recent attention to corporate reporting issues. Although thetraditional role for the schedule has been to assist the audit process, the reconciliation ofbook to tax accounting numbers also provides information that is useful to tax analysts. Wefind the existing tax return Schedule M-1, largely unchanged since its introduction in 1963,provides insufficient detail for complex reconciliation issues. We propose a modified M-1 to achieve better reconciliation, and discuss the advantages, and disadvantages, of publicdisclosure of such data