IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v165y2020i1d10.1007_s10551-018-4088-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethics of Tax Interpretation

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel T. Ostas

    (University of Oklahoma)

Abstract

This article joins a somewhat nascent, but growing, body of scholarship addressing the ethical obligation to pay tax. The analysis is grounded to the ethical duty to obey law generally and highlights two competing orientations to statutory interpretation. The norms of self-interested advocacy suggest that tax planners should assert that interpretation that will generate the most wealth for the client. The norms of professional advising, by contrast, direct the tax planner to interpret tax law with reference to plain meaning, interpretive maxims, court precedents, and legislative purpose. When the two orientations differ, the ethical duty to obey law requires the tax planner to recommend, and for the taxpayer to follow, the latter view. Case studies drawn from a Louisiana sales tax avoidance scheme and from Google’s profit-shifting activities illustrate the ethical issues incumbent in tax interpretation.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel T. Ostas, 2020. "Ethics of Tax Interpretation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 83-94, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:165:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4088-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4088-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-018-4088-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-018-4088-7?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Alm & Benno Torgler, 2011. "Do Ethics Matter? Tax Compliance and Morality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(4), pages 635-651, July.
    2. Robert Bird & Karie Davis-Nozemack, 2018. "Tax Avoidance as a Sustainability Problem," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1009-1025, September.
    3. Gabriel Zucman, 2014. "Taxing across Borders: Tracking Personal Wealth and Corporate Profits," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 121-148, Fall.
    4. Juan Molero & Francesc Pujol, 2012. "Walking Inside the Potential Tax Evader’s Mind: Tax Morale Does Matter," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(2), pages 151-162, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Colin C. Williams, 2016. "An evaluation of the shadow economy in Baltic states: a tax morale perspective," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 28(2/3), pages 339-358.
    2. C Williams, Colin, 2021. "Explaining And Tackling Undeclared Work In South East Europe: Lessons From A 2019 Eurobarometer Survey," UTMS Journal of Economics, University of Tourism and Management, Skopje, Macedonia, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18.
    3. Ibn e Hassan & Ahmed Naeem & Sidra Gulzar, 2021. "Voluntary tax compliance behavior of individual taxpayers in Pakistan," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Barbara Culiberg & Domen Bajde, 2014. "Do You Need a Receipt? Exploring Consumer Participation in Consumption Tax Evasion as an Ethical Dilemma," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 271-282, October.
    5. Gaetano Lisi, 2012. "Macroeconomic implications of the dynamics between power and trust: a theoretical formalisation of the ‘slippery slope’ framework," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2012_21, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    6. Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2018. "An Institutional Theory Of Informal Entrepreneurship: Some Lessons From Fyr Macedonia," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(03), pages 1-22, September.
    7. Antonio Faúndez-Ugalde & Patricia Toledo-Zúñiga & Pedro Castro-Rodríguez, 2022. "Tax Sustainability: Tax Transparency in Latin America and the Chilean Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Anesa, Mattia & Bressan, Alessandro, 2024. "SMEs tax minimization as shared responsibility," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    9. Paul Dunn & Jonathan Farrar & Cass Hausserman, 2018. "The Influence of Guilt Cognitions on Taxpayers’ Voluntary Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 689-701, March.
    10. Colin C. Williams, 2014. "Confronting the Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15370.
    11. Williams Colin C, 2019. "Explaining and tackling the informal economy: an evaluation of competing perspectives," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 63-75, January.
    12. Colin C Williams & Ioana A Horodnic, 2017. "Evaluating the policy approaches for tackling undeclared work in the European Union," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(5), pages 916-936, August.
    13. Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2018. "Evaluating Policy Approaches Towards Undeclared Work: Some Lessons from FYR of Macedonia," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 16(2), pages 171-187.
    14. Colin C Williams & Ioana A Horodnic, 2016. "Tackling the undeclared economy in the European Union: an evaluation of the tax morale approach," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 322-340, July.
    15. Benkraiem, Ramzi & Uyar, Ali & Kilic, Merve & Schneider, Friedrich, 2021. "Ethical behavior, auditing strength, and tax evasion: A worldwide perspective," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    16. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    17. Gaetano Lisi, 2024. "Shadow economy, “mixed” firms, and labour market outcomes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(3), pages 685-701, June.
    18. Colin C. Williams & Ioana A. Horodnic, 2015. "Explaining and tackling the shadow economy in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: a tax morale approach," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 81-98.
    19. Colin C. WILLIAMS & Josip FRANIC, 2017. "Tackling the illegitimate under-reporting of salaries in Southeast Europe: some lessons from a 2015 survey in Bulgaria, Croatia and FYR Macedonia," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 8, pages 5-28, June.
    20. Kemme, David M. & Parikh, Bhavik & Steigner, Tanja, 2020. "Tax Morale and International Tax Evasion," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(3).

    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:kap:jbuset:v:165:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-018-4088-7. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.