Abstract Accounting as it is commonly understood is the art of recording, classifying, summarizing and interpreting transactions and events which are, in part at least, of a financial character. The roles which the art of accounting plays in taxation are both varied and important. Only the most elementary estimates of revenue needs can be made unless they are supported by comprehensive accounting classifications of expenditures by the taxing unit for a period of prior years together with similar classifications of the estimates of its current needs. In controlling and reporting upon the collection and disposition of public revenues, accounting is, of course, a commonplace. But it is in the field of income taxation, the revenues from which play such a dominant part in the financial programs of the Federal Government and of many of the states, that the role of accounting in the taxing process attains its greatest importance. Without accounting, the administration of an income-tax program would be impossible.
Carman G. Blough (Tue,) studied this question.