The discussion about the authoritative principle especially due to the implementation of the international accounting standards is of prime importance. The future of the authoritative principle leads to the question how the taxable income is going to be computed. In order to give insight of an approach where the dependency principle is not in effect Eva Eberhartinger and Nadine Wiedermann-Ondrej examine the relationship between financial and tax accounting in the USA. The authors address particularly the accrual method of accounting and reflect the fundamental differences between the goals of tax accounting and financial accounting. Special attention is given to the all-the-events-doctrine where all the necessary events to fix the taxpayer's right to receive income have to be occurred.