Differences in financial statements of business entities in the Czech Republic

Ministry of Finance in the Czech Republic identifies and defines four types of accounting entities that are engaged in business activities. These are the "normal" business entities, business entities as banks, commercial insurance companies and health insurance companies. For each of these types of entities the Ministry of Finance issued relevant regulations that contain specific accounting policies arising mainly from the specifics of the scope of business activities of these entities. The effects of these specifics are ultimately shown also in the individual parts of the financial statement closing. In contrast the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and also generally accepted accounting principles of the United States (U.S. GAAP) are valid for all listed entities regardless of their size and scope of activities. The ongoing globalization of the world, transnational mergers and acquisitions of various companies brings the requirements for unification of accounting policies in order to achieve comparability of financial statements closing of companies from different countries, their transparency and completeness of published information in the individual countries. This paper deals with the definition of significant differences in the items of financial statement closing of different types of business entities in the Czech Republic and with the formulation of proposals for individual types of entities, which would contribute to easier orientation and grater comparability for the needs of different users of accounting information.