M48 - Accounting and Auditing: Government Policy and RegulationReturn

The article focuses on the conditions for the profession of tax advisor in the European Union. Based on a questionnaire survey, professional tax consultancy organizations were examined in countries that, like the Czech Republic, have a special law regulating this profession. In the second group of selected Member States, tax advice is not governed by a special law, and can therefore provide tax advisory services to any domestic or foreign person without restriction. However, it also emerged from the questionnaire survey that, even in countries where no advice is regulated by a special law, there are professional organizations in which membership is conditional on proving a certain amount of knowledge. Membership in these organizations is on a voluntary basis and its members have the privilege to use a special professional title with this associated membership. These self-regulatory professional organizations often behave in a similar way and require similar conditions as professional organizations in selected countries where tax advice is considered as regulated activity. In particular, it is proof of the knowledge of entering the profession and the pressure to maintain it and to perform tax consultancy over the years.