Impact of creative accounting on the company value: Empirical study for Slovakia

Research background: Procedures and methods for determining the value of a company are different. The purpose of determining the value of the company, what results the company reports and also who performs the valuation has a significant influence on the choice of the method. Purpose of the article: The determination of the final value of the company is influenced by many factors, economic, technical, specifics of the company and also the date on which the value is calculated and who performs the evaluation. Methods: In expert practice in determining the value of the company, we work mainly with methods based on property and income principles (asset method, yield method). The basic material for calculating the value of a company is the company’s accounting, which, however, can often be influenced. There can be several purposes for distorting accounting information (financial statements). The most common reason is the reduction of the tax base, or artificial improvement of the achieved results. Creative accounting practices significantly affect the structure of the company as well as its financial results. Findings & Value added: The main goal of the paper is to quantify a few examples, which will contribute to reducing the economic result. Subsequently, we analyse these interventions how they can affect the resulting general value of the company determined by the expert and whether the expert is able to detect them.