Earnings management (EM) and earnings quality (EQ) can be considered two related challenging issues in financial reporting as EM is an aspect influencing EQ. Managers can make discretionary accounting choices that are regarded as a practice of either efficient communication of private information or distorting disclosure. When income smoothing is used to communicate private information and expectations, it can improve the informativeness of a firm’s current and future performance. On the contrary, the intentional manipulation of earnings made by managers, within the limits allowed by the Accounting Standards, may distort the usefulness of financial reporting to users. In this circumstance, EM looks like a practice that could lead to lower quality of earnings if it identifies with the result of management’s opportunistic use of accruals with the intent to mislead users.