Accountants and the everyday: or what the papers said about the Irish accountant and tax evasion

Abstract

As academics we write in scholarly and professional journals (what we hope are) reasoned analyses of the actualities and potentialities of accounting practices. We read the similarly crafted endeavours of our colleagues, published in the same medium. There is a considerable temptation to forget that most people neither read this literature nor do they attend academic conferences, much less are they privy to discussions in the council chambers of the profession. For many people their understanding of who accountants are; of what they do; and of what they should do is much more likely to be shaped and indeed modified by more common means and through more informal interaction. Our particular interest is in the popular press as one such conduit for the everyday articulation and dissemination of representations of the roles and responsibilities of accountants. Our purpose is to suggest how and why everyday perceptions of the accountant and their connections to society might proceed along very different lines of logic from our own.

The role of accountancy firms in tax avoidance: Some evidence and issues

“…Organised and aggressive tax avoidance raises major questions about the assumed social responsibility and ethics of accountancy firms and their rich clients, but such issues attract little attention in the bourgeoning corporate social responsibility and accounting literature (Christensen and Murphy, 2004) even though some of the episodes are regularly reported in newspapers (Bougen et al, 1999;Mitchell et al, 2002 whilst for the same period, despite record company profits and average rates of return of 11.5% against an annual inflation rate of 3-4%, the take from corporate taxes increased from £21.5 billion to only £28.1 billion 32 . Corporate share of total UK tax take has dropped from 11.5 per cent in 1997/98 to 7.7 per cent in (BDO Stoy Hayward, 2004) and amounts to less than 2.5% of the British GDP, the lowest ever (Mitchell and Sikka, 2005 Sociological literature draws attention to a close (but complex) relationship between the state and accountancy profession (Johnson, 1972(Johnson, , 1980 which enables the state to manage and displace its crisis of legitimacy ( Sikka and Willmott, 1995b).…”

Deployment of whistleblowing as an accountability mechanism to curb corruption and fraud in a developing democracy

“…to curb corruption and fraud mechanisms" (Alleyne et al, 2013, p. 11). Whistleblowers would be seen as active participants in the search for economic and social justice (Bougen et al, 1999). Intending to right a wrong, the potential whistleblower may set out to correct a malpractice or malfeasance.…”

Conceptions of corporate social responsibility: the nature of managerial capture

“…The interview evidence underpinning the narrative presented in this paper emanates from a context where societal suspicion of business responsibilities has reached an all time high. For example, around the time the evidence was gathered, media accounts of controversial business practices, alleged payments of abundant sums of money by well-known businessmen to politicians (including a former Prime Minister), and widespread tax evasion by leading business people and companies, had fuelled increased scepticism of the business sector from many quarters (Bougen et al, 1999;The Irish Times, 1998. This was occurring at a time when Ireland was in the midst of tremendous economic and social change evidenced by soaring economic growth levels (Gardiner, 1999;Sweeney, 1998) and detailed and critical public scrutiny of previously revered institutions such as the Catholic Church (Nic Ghiolla Phadraig, 1995;Sweeney, 1998).…”