An evaluation of the role of the accounting profession within the Business Promotions Act

Abstract

The Business Promotion Act 2001 (BPA) is a new business incentives package for Malta which significantly revised, broadened and re-named the Industrial Development Act 1988 (IDA). The BPA was designed to boost investment in Malta through a number of specifically designed schemes and incentives and has significantly influenced a large number of business enterprises operating locally, particularly the manufacturing sector. These incentives offer specific challenges and responsibilities to the accounting professional working or providing services to these companies. This study identifies some of these challenges and responsibilities and examines the problems encountered by local accounting professionals. An overview of the BPA and its incentives is presented. For practical purposes, the area of inquiry is restricted only to the fiscal incentives offered by this regulation and an overview of the potential role of the accounting professional within the BPA is given. For the purpose of this study, a number of accounting professionals were selected according to the work sector in which they were employed and information was collected by means of a postal questionnaire. It emerged that with the enactment of the BPA, the accountant has become an important advisor for business owners and has increasingly become involved in decisions relating to the structure of the businesses activities. However, it also transpired that the contribution made by local accounting professionals is influenced by their limited knowledge and inability to keep up-to-date, the work sector in which they are employed and lack of support from the Malta Development Corporation (MDC). The study concludes by presenting a summary of this study, together with a number of conclusions and recommendations.