The Evolution of Turkey’s Accounting and Auditing System on the way Towards the European Union

Abstract

Turkey has a relatively short history of accounting in the modern sense. However, it has been rapidly developing since the 1980s in reference to accounting education, laws and institutions. Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, a state oriented policy was initially implemented, followed by the experimentation of a mixed economic model after the mid-1940s and the imposition of a more liberal economic policy after the 1980s. The latter alterations have naturally increased the amount of international capital movements into Turkey and thus the portion of foreign capital has increased. As a result of these developments, reliable, accurate and comparable financial information has gained importance. Today, Turkey needs to prepare the required institutional and legislature system in order to better maintain the growing international financial relationships. Besides needing to integrate within the world, Turkey being in the process of gaining EU membership has brought about significant progress for convergence in the fields of international financial reporting standards and auditing standards. This study intends to assess the legislative arrangements, related institutions and professional education in the fields of accounting and auditing, in order to determine the point that Turkey achieved international convergence in the fields of accounting and auditing.