Tax Experts’ Response to Regulatory and Institutional Triggers

Abstract

This chapter explores the situations in which tax experts are most likely to take an innovative or aggressive tax position, focusing on the self-perception of the experts themselves of the factors that may influence them in taking such a position. The results highlight the micro-influences on tax experts that may move them along the spectrum of tax avoidance, which has been acknowledged as posing a significant risk to public welfare, equality of opportunity, and the common good. The chapter presents findings from an international survey of tax professionals and experts and highlights some key risk factors. The factors that lead tax experts to take a position that pushes the envelope of regulation are explored in aggregate and compared across the jurisdictional boundary of high or low levels of financial secrecy. The findings have the potential to empower both regulators and professional bodies in addressing the problem of tax avoidance.

A multidisciplinary analysis of tax reform

“…Laws are a crucial part of tax policy and reform, taxpayers should pay their taxes following the law, and tax experts should advise them within the realm of it (Killian et al, 2021), hence avoidance and evasion behaviour are manipulations or blight disobedience to the law, respectively. Law enforcement personnel (investigators, prosecutors and judges) regularly use and interpret the law in order to find who has not paid their taxes and to define whether and how they should be punished for this.…”