Global Journal of Management and Business Research, D: Accounting and Auditing, Volume 22 Issue 2

information would encourage the debtors to renew their confidence in the company. Nevertheless, when these relationships are observed in the specific case of SMEs, we can note that the relationships are unchanged. This can be explained by the fact that 99% of the sample is composed of this category of firms. However, in the case of large firms, only the nondiscretionary accruals and short-term debt retain the meaning and significance of the relationship; we also note a negative auto-regression between the accruals. As mentioned above, since they are subject to monitoring and therefore to repression in the event of abuse of discretionary power, large firms will tend to reduce their use of it over time. However, in the desire to see assets bear fruit, the size of the company (as measured by the level of assets) has a positive influence on the management of accounting data. This is because although a large company is subject to continuous controls, the sheer size of the assets can lead to loopholes and concealment of data management. The empirical results also allow us to note a self-regression between the effective tax rate, management quality, financial profitability and debt of the previous and current year, each of which has a positive and significant influence on the effective tax rate. These relationships are the same in small entities, with the exception of long-term debt, which is no longer significant; in large companies, only tax and profitability in the previous year have significant and positive influences on the effective tax rate. These positive relationships with the effective tax rate are explained by the quest for profitability of the entity, as tax is applied to the result, and that a combination of better financing and better management leads to better profitability and consequently to lower taxes. As a whole, in the Cameroonian context, where the accounting results of companies represent one of the main sources of tax revenue, the manipulation of financial end-year results through the discretionary accruals deserve a particular attention of stakeholders, especially tax authorities. This important issue could be mastered with an adapted tax system that could allow the state to stabilise its revenues, encourage the transparency of accounting data, and reduce information asymmetries. On the other hand, the high tax burden and corruption in Cameroon seem to encourage entities to engage in discretionary management of accounting data. Indeed, despite being subject to rigorous audit processes, companies can evade tax administration through corruption. From this perspective, a reduction in bribery may encourage companies to comply more with the regulations, as the gain from managing the result will be less than the loss from an administrative tax adjustment. Therefore, as recommended by OHADA, compliance with rules and standards aims at mitigating the problems of information asymmetry between the firm and its stakeholders, thus enhancing the true and fair view of the company's financial position. Taxation and Accounting Data Management: An Empirical Study in Cameroon 75 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue II Version I Year 2022 ( )D © 2022 Global Journals