IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/aaajpp/aaaj-06-2023-6528.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“On the same wavelength”: reconciling competing logics in tax client relationships

Author

Listed:
  • Ruth Lynch

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics in the relationship between tax practitioners and their tax clients, to understand how tax practitioners reconcile competing logics in their tax work. Design/methodology/approach - This research adopts a qualitative approach in which semi-structured interviews are conducted with 68 tax practitioners across 11 countries, allowing for the examination of an in-depth personal perspective on tax practitioners’ relationships with their clients. Findings - Using a Bourdieusian frame, I find that long-term client relationships built on trust and shared values, as moderated by risk appetite and cultural markers, can enable tax practitioners to reconcile competing logics in their advisory work. Practical implications - The research findings presented reflect the way in which tax practitioners navigate, build up and maintain long-term relationships with their clients. The findings are highly relevant for regulators as my research shows that clients share a similar tax risk appetite with their tax advisor, thus this can assist regulators in curbing tax non-compliance and in identifying more tax-aggressive tax practitioners and taxpayers. Originality/value - Previous studies (Carter and Spence, 2014; Harber and Willows, 2022) have examined the tension between commercial and other professional logics among senior accountants working in Big 4 firms. I extend and deepen this work to tax practitioners, drawing on a substantial corpus of interviews to examine the role of the client relationship in explaining the heterogeneity of the field. These findings add to the understanding of client agency and to the subtleties of professional relationships within the tax domain.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruth Lynch, 2024. "“On the same wavelength”: reconciling competing logics in tax client relationships," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(9), pages 55-79, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:aaaj-06-2023-6528
    DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-06-2023-6528
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2023-6528/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2023-6528/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2023-6528?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:aaaj-06-2023-6528. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.