ACCOUNTING TERMS - ACCOUNTING DICTIONARY - ACCOUNTING GLOSSARY
From the web's #1 provider of ratio analysis / financial analysis
With over 3,600 accounting terms and growing, we are the Internet's most complete and popular accounting dictionary of accounting terms. Ranked #1 by all major search engines for: Accounting Terms, Accounting Dictionary, and Accounting Glossary.
Your requested accounting terms definition is below. If you require additional accounting glossary definitions, please enter the accounting terms you require.
ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE Definition
- ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE
ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE refers to the application of income tax laws, i.e., the substance of the transaction, rather than its form, determines the tax consequences, with few exceptions. The "form" of a transaction is only the label the interested parties attach to their arrangement. For instance, an arrangement might be called a compensation agreement, loan, lease or sale. Documents may support the form, but the courts are not concerned with these labels or papers that purport to govern the transaction -- they focus on its substance. The "substance over form" analysis is used to dissect self-serving transactions between parties, including loans and payments to family members; transactions between related corporations and their shareholders, partnerships and their partners; and between trusts and their beneficiaries. For instance, sale of a home by a parent to a child may be re-characterized by the court as a gift, if the child never pays for it. Related-party transactions provide fertile territory for self-dealing, with the tax benefit as the real motivating purpose, disguised by the form of the transaction. In contrast, arms-length transactions with independent third parties are far less vulnerable.
