This paper examines the implementation status of sustainable development goals (SDG) in Spain and explores the extent to which the country will be able to meet European standards in sustainability by the year 2030 within the current regulation and praxis. Based on data retrieved from official statistics supplied by Eurostat for a set of indicators useful to monitor the goals our calculations prognosticate whether Spain will reach the European Union average values. The display of each relevant indicator is provided, as well as discussion on their evolution and some recommendations for an effective implementation of SDG on the mid-term, notwithstanding the peculiar political and socio-economic situation in the country. The study proves that Spain needs to adopt urgent regulatory measures and public policies in order to fulfill its commitment to the 2030 Agenda. Otherwise, if the ongoing trend continues, most of the Spanish indicators will not reach the European average values in the overwhelming majority of the goals, including areas as relevant as the struggle for education or environment.

In this study, we investigate the relationship between tax avoidance and earnings management in the largest five European Union economies by using artificial neural network regressions. This methodology allows us to deal with nonlinearities detected in the data, which is the principal contribution to the previous literature. We analyzed Compustat data for Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain for the 2006–2015 period, focusing on discretionary accruals. We considered three tax avoidance measures, two based on the effective tax rate (ETR) and one on book-tax differences (BTD). Our results indicate the presence of nonlinear patterns and a positive, statistically significant relationship between discretionary accruals and both ETR indicators implying that when companies resort to earnings management, a larger taxable income—and thus higher ETR and lesser tax avoidance– would ensue. Hence, as also highlighted by the fact that discretionary accruals do not appear to affect BTD, our evidence does not suggest that companies are exploiting tax manipulation to reduce their tax payments; thus, the gap between accounting and taxation seems largely unaffected by earnings management.

The aim of this article has been to develop a communication strategy that will allow Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) to enhance their transparency and accountability to target groups. The study emphasizes the fact that these organizations should base their strategy on three fundamental props—target audience, message, and channels of communication. Defining the target audience and the message and revealing the most common ways of getting the message across have been the backbone of the theory put forward in this article. The analysis highlights the need for SAIs to aim their communication strategy at an increasingly wider audience which will, in turn, receive different messages via both traditional and new media.

This paper examines the effect of state ownership on the effective tax rates of Spanish companies. Using information regarding 3169 companies during the period of 2008–2014, we show that there are significant differences between the tax burdens of non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with the effective tax rates of private ownership companies being higher than those of state-owned firms. Company features, such as size, leverage, research and development investment, profitability, firm age, foreign operations, and auditing determine the tax burden of private ownership firms. That of state-owned companies, however, is affected only by leverage and capital intensity. For both SOEs and NSOEs, the tax burden is lower when they are taxed under the Spanish special taxation regime for small- and medium-sized enterprises. In short, company characteristics are more important in private ownership firms, in which almost all the variables considered have certain repercussions. This result may be because private ownership companies devote more resources to tax avoidance, and their fiscal strategy may determine their economic and financial structure. However, SOEs present significantly lower effective tax rates than NSOEs, probably because of the tax incentives that the law provides for them to support their sustainability.

In the past, Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) rarely publicized their work. In the 1990s, a few began to publish booklets and brochures for popular consumption and to establish ties with the media. These days, SAIs are concerned about communication. A communication policy completes their cycle of accountability, justifies their existence, is an essential component of their independence and efficiency and brings about measures which assess the impact of their work.The aim of this article is to analyse the latest communication strategies developed by SAIs in order to publicize the results of their activity and to provide the public with an overall vision of what they do. The study, based on a questionnaire sent out to European Union SAIs, highlights the fact that these bodies undertake wide-ranging communication activities involving a close relationship with the media and the use of Internet websites. Points for practitioners This article explores the most recent developments in European Union SAI communication strategy. Based on survey research, the study concludes that SAIs maintain a close relationship with the media and have been able to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Internet to publish their results and to provide users with an overview of their work. For SAIs, this analysis allows them to be graded in terms of their relationship with the media and how they use Internet websites. Hence it will be possible to establish criteria leading to improvements or maintenance of their relative situation.