Dutch private sector and local government accounting regulations: A comparison

This paper addresses the Dutch Regulations on Government Accounting as far as local governments are concerned. These regulations have undergone several changes in the past. The actual set of regulations has been developed with the Dutch private-sector-accounting-legislation as a reference. In 1931, the first serious local government accounting regulations came into place. The transfer from modified cash accounting into accrual accounting in 1985 was an important reform and the continued adaptation of the regulations to private sector accounting in 1995 constituted the state of the art, which will be analyzed. This will be done by a comparison between private sector accounting legislation and local government acccounting regulations and an explanation of the still existing differences. A next adaptation is expected in the near future. Comments will be placed in the light of the desirability of some further changes.