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

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  • Prem Sikka
  • Mark P. Hampton

Abstract

As entrepreneurial businesses, accountancy firms have supplemented their traditional trade of selling accounting and auditing services by diversifying into a variety of other products and services. They have developed organisational structures and strategies to sell tax avoidance schemes to corporations and wealthy individuals. The sale of such services shifts tax burdens to less mobile capital and less well-off citizens. It also erodes the tax base and brings the firms into direct conflict with the state. This paper provides some evidence of the strategies and tactics used by accountancy firms to sell schemes that enable their clients to avoid corporate, sales and payroll taxes. Such strategies stimulate reflections upon the possible trajectories in the development of accountancy firms and social consequences of their trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Prem Sikka & Mark P. Hampton, 2005. "The role of accountancy firms in tax avoidance: Some evidence and issues," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 325-343, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:accfor:v:29:y:2005:i:3:p:325-343
    DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2005.03.008
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sikka, Prem, 2010. "Smoke and mirrors: Corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 153-168.
    2. Otusanya, Olatunde Julius, 2011. "The role of multinational companies in tax evasion and tax avoidance: The case of Nigeria," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 316-332.
    3. Elaine Doyle & Jane Hughes & Keith Glaister, 2009. "Linking Ethics and Risk Management in Taxation: Evidence from an Exploratory Study in Ireland and the UK," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 177-198, May.
    4. Zhiying Hu & Haiyan Yang & Yuyu Zhang & Jenny Jing Wang, 2023. "Does common auditor have an impact on corporate tax avoidance? An investigation from the supply chain perspective," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 575-629, March.
    5. Lewis, Mervyn K., 2012. "New dogs, old tricks. Why do Ponzi schemes succeed?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 294-309.
    6. Arnold, Patricia J., 2009. "Global financial crisis: The challenge to accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 803-809, August.
    7. VAN TENDELOO, Brenda, 2007. "Audit quality and tax-induced earnings management in UK private firms," Working Papers 2007004, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    8. Sikka, Prem, 2015. "The hand of accounting and accountancy firms in deepening income and wealth inequalities and the economic crisis: Some evidence," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 46-62.
    9. Hasseldine, John & Morris, Gregory, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance: A comment and reflection," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-14.
    10. Boll, Karen, 2014. "Shady car dealings and taxing work practices: An ethnography of a tax audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 1-19.
    11. Ashley, Louise & Boussebaa, Mehdi & Friedman, Sam & Harrington, Brooke & Heusinkveld, Stefan & Gustafsson, Stefanie & Muzio, Daniel, 2023. "Professions and inequality: challenges, controversies, and opportunities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119522, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Edgley, Carla & Holland, Kevin, 2021. "“Unknown unknowns” and the tax knowledge gap: Power and the materiality of discretionary tax disclosures," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    13. AnnMarie Bennett & Breda Murphy, 2017. "The Tax Profession: Tax Avoidance and the Public Interest," Economics Department Working Paper Series n286-17.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    14. Gracia, Louise & Oats, Lynne, 2012. "Boundary work and tax regulation: A Bourdieusian view," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 304-321.
    15. Jeff Everett & Constance Friesen & Dean Neu & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2018. "We Have Never Been Secular: Religious Identities, Duties, and Ethics in Audit Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1121-1142, December.
    16. Norton, Simon D., 2018. "Suspicion of money laundering reporting obligations: Auditor compliance, or sceptical failure to engage?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 56-66.
    17. Duff, Angus, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility as a legitimacy maintenance strategy in the professional accountancy firm," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(6), pages 513-531.
    18. Prem Sikka, 2008. "Corporate governance: what about the workers?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(7), pages 955-977, September.
    19. Chabrak Nihel, 2011. "The Shareholder Era and the Changing Nature of the Corporation. A Comment on "Managed by the Markets: How Finance Re-Shaped America" by G. Davis (OUP, 2009)," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 1-16, August.
    20. Sheila Killian & Philip O'Regan & Ruth Lynch & Martin Laheen & Dionysios Karavidas, 2022. "Regulating havens: The role of hard and soft governance of tax experts in conditions of secrecy and low regulation," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 722-737, July.
    21. Elaine Doyle & Jane Frecknall-Hughes & Barbara Summers, 2014. "Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(4), pages 623-641, July.
    22. Bakre, Owolabi M., 2008. "Financial reporting as technology that supports and sustains imperial expansion, maintenance and control in the colonial and post-colonial globalisation: The case of the Jamaican economy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 487-522.
    23. Ylönen, Matti & Laine, Matias, 2015. "For logistical reasons only? A case study of tax planning and corporate social responsibility reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 5-23.
    24. Norton, Simon D., 2012. "Judicial interpretation of the will of the state: A Hegelian perspective in the context of taxation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 117-133.
    25. Apostol, Oana & Pop, Alina, 2019. "‘Paying taxes is losing money’: A qualitative study on institutional logics in the tax consultancy field in Romania," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-23.

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