臺灣是國際金融中心及亞洲四小龍之一，其會計準則源自美國的會計準則，且目前正致力與國際財務報告準則接軌，但其與美國公認會計準則及國際財務報告準則之間尚有重大差異。本文以於美國上市或發行美國存託憑證的臺灣公司所提供的財務報表，探討臺灣公認會計準則與美國公認會計準則的差異。本研究發現，在國家層面上，主要會計差異原因首為文化因素，次為政治因素，三為經濟因素；而在個別公司層面上，會計差異主要成因為缺乏非貨幣項目的處理。最後，吾等指出對臺灣公認會計準則與國際性財務報告準則接軌的若干障礙。

Although Taiwan is an international financial centre and one of the four Asian Dragons, Taiwanese GAAP, which was originally developed from US GAAP and being now in the process of convergence with IFRS, is quite departed from those two FRSs. This study empirically analyses the accounting differences between Taiwanese and US GAAPs, using the financial statements of Taiwanese companies which are listed in U.S. or traded in ADR. This study found that at the country level, the major accounting differences between the Taiwanese and US GAAPs were primarily attributed to the cultural factors, secondarily the political factors and thirdly the economic factors; at the individual company level, the accounting differences were mainly due to the lack of accounting treatments on non-monetary items. At the end of this paper, we also highlight some impediment to the convergence of Taiwanese GAAP with the international FRSs.