Michael Kapitonoff Apr 26, 2011:

Then I guess you have all your bases covered here. All I am saying is that as a US-trained MBA I find this "accounting profit" a little off - not because it makes no sense but because the difference you refer to is very theoretic and kind of implied in standard definitions used in real life. Of course, opportunity costs reduce your nominal earnings, but as a "down and dirty" tax accountant you don't deal with such matters. Whatever Investopedia or whatever says, I still read your sentence as a difference between before and after tax profits rather than anything else. But that's me, you go ahead and use your own judgment. When all else fails, just translate verbatim and be done with it. Oh, and by the way, you are welcome.

Emily Justice (asker) Apr 26, 2011:

accounting profit
Hello again Misha. Thanks for the time you are taking to help me!

There are over 200,000 Google hits for "accounting profit" and lots of sites explaining how it differs from economic profit. Here is one example below. It still might not be the right term here though!

What Does Accounting Profit Mean?
A company's total earnings, calculated according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and includes the explicit costs of doing business, such as depreciation, interest and taxes.
Investopedia explains Accounting Profit
Accounting profits tend to be higher than economic profits as they omit certain implicit costs, such as opportunity costs.
For example, if you invest $100,000 to start a business and earned $120,000 in profit, your accounting profit would be $20,000. Economic profit would add implicit costs, such as the opportunity cost of $50,000 should you have been employed instead during that period. As such, you would have an economic loss of $30,000 ($120,000 - $100,000 - $50,000).

Michael Kapitonoff Apr 26, 2011:

OK, now I see where the confusion may be. I am not particularly well-versed in Russian non-GAAP accounting, so I am merely guessing here. What they refer to as "bukhgalterskaya pribyl" seems to be roughly equivalent to EBITDA or EBIT, i.e. earnings before interest, taxes, (depreciation and amortization). I would call that earnings (or profit) before tax, not "accounting profit", this way everyone will know what is meant here. "Accounting profit" catches my eye right away as a non-standard term. Again, I am speaking from my US experience, I know you guys in the UK may sometimes use slightly different accounting lingo.

Emily Justice (asker) Apr 26, 2011:

More context Thanks for all your help Misha. All these terms are taken from the план счетов that appears to be the "standard" one used in Russian accounting. I have found a useful site giving information about what should be included under each account. For Условный расход по налогу на прибыль all it says is: Предназначен для обобщения информации о суммах условного расхода по налогу на прибыль. And for Условный доход по налогу на прибыль we have Предназначен для обобщения информации о суммах условного дохода по налогу на прибыль.
This is the site: http://www.afga.ru/?p=571

And here is where I got the "accounting profit" from. I checked out lots of English sites also and it seemed to fit: Условный расход (условный доход) по налогу на прибыль (пункт 20 ПБУ 18/02) – это сумма налога на прибыль, определяемая исходя из бухгалтерской прибыли (убытка) и отражаемая в бухгалтерском учете независимо от суммы налогооблагаемой прибыли (убытка). Определяется сумма условного расхода (условного дохода) как произведение бухгалтерской прибыли на ставку налога на прибыль, установленную законодательством Российской Федерации и действующую на определенную дату.

But that is all the context I have.

Michael Kapitonoff Apr 26, 2011:

There can be no such thing as "Profit (no -s, by the way) tax income based on accounting loss" for the simple reason that an accounting loss does not mean that you will get anything back from the tax man. At best, your liability will be zero (and not even that in a lot of jurisdictions where you'd have to pay all kinds of minimum fees if you are an incorporated business, regardless of whether you make any profit or not). There may also be something called "recapture" involved when certain amounts refunded by the government may be considered taxable income, but I wouldn't want to go there without seeing more context and, preferably, the applicable tax regulations.