The Ethics of Tax Planning

Any system of taxation depends on a substantial degree of compliance from the taxpayer. But do ethical considerations stop at obeying the letter of the tax law, or do they drive one to take a more critical and socially responsible attitude towards tax avoidance as well as evasion? Dr Alan Stainer is Head of Engineering Management at Middlesex University, Bounds Green Road, London N11 2NQ, and Founder Director of the International Society for Productivity & Quality Research; Lorice Stainer is Senior Lecturer in Business Ethics at the University of Hertfordshire Business School and a Business Ethics Consultant; and Alexandra Segal is a Chartered Accountant, Taxation Manager with Keelings Chartered Accountants, London, and a Taxation Consultant.     

The Limits of Strategic Rationality: Ethics, Enterprise Risk Management, and Governance

This article explores the links between strategic goals, enterprise risk management, and ethics. We offer a typology of managerial attitudes toward strategic goals and rationality and explore the interaction between strategic and ethical decision making. In so doing, we offer a practical framework for managers to approach ethical dilemmas in the highly complex, volatile, and risky economy that we currently find ourselves in.     

Code of Ethics: A Stratified Vehicle for Compliance

When a business owner approaches a bank for a loan for their business they might hope that a well-established bureaucratic procedure would ensure that their application was processed with stipulated rules and impersonal criteria. They might expect that two bank officials, evaluating the same proposal for a loan, would reach the same decision. However, research shows that both quantifiable data and “gut feelings” are used in the decision. In this research, analysis of interviews with senior managers, and both individual and focus group interviews with bank loan officers, reveals that there are no set criteria or stipulated rules. The interviews demonstrate how and why nonquantifiable data is used, and why different bank officials can reach different conclusions on the same loan proposal. While these bank loan officers do not appear to be discriminatory against female business owners, the lending criteria and process allows significant room for discrimination. It appears questionable whether bank lending is seen as an ethical and fair process.     

Oversight Ethics: The Case of Business Licensing

The ethics research community has all but ignored issues of oversight ethics – the vices and virtues of overseers. This study develops a conceptual framework for exploring the ethics of oversight and provides insights into the design of codes of ethics for oversight institutions and for overseers. Analysis of business licensing in Israel reveals prospective and retrospective oversight ethics problems at the levels of national and local policy and implementation: Overseers failed to act on knowledge of breaches of business licensing stipulations and took action known to be slow and ineffective; policymakers neglected their duty to enact significant policy change in an oversight system that was clearly not working. Partially as a result of these oversight failures, over one third of Israeli businesses are unlicensed, 23 people were killed in the collapse of an unlicensed banquet hall, 2 major fires erupted in the same shopping mall, and a fire in a fertilizer warehouse very nearly became a mega-disaster.     

Post-Communist Consumer Ethics: The Case of Romania

In this paper we theorize that cognitive ethical orientations play an influential role in the beliefs of consumers when faced with different ranges of moral dilemmas. We examine this proposition in transitional Eastern Europe and results from a sample of 210 Romanian consumers suggest that Romanians are faced with a moral situation where low levels of Machiavellianism and high levels of idealism appear to relate to a higher ethical concern about passively benefiting at the expense of others.     

税收征管、纳税遵从与税收优惠——对金税三期工程的政策效应评估

金税三期工程(以下简称“金三”)是提高税收征管能力的重要举措。本文基于全国税收调查数据,采用双重差分和三重差分评估了“金三”的政策效果,结果表明:(1)“金三”显著提高了纳税遵从度,促进了“应收尽收”;(2)“金三”促进了税收优惠政策的落实,提高了企业税收优惠政策的享受比例,促进了“应享尽享”;(3)虽然提高纳税遵从会使一部分税收不遵从企业实际税负上升,但促进税收优惠政策落实能够使更多符合条件的企业减轻税负,在两者的作用下,“金三”没有对企业总体税负产生显著影响。本文的研究论证了“金三”的双重效应,一方面优化信息系统,提高纳税遵从度,另一方面提升纳税服务质量,促进税收优惠政策的落实。     

Ethics and Lobbying: The Case of Real Estate Brokerage

Members of licensed occupations benefit from legal standards that limit entry into their professions. Is it ethical for these professionals to give political support to these standards? I examined the case of real estate brokers and found that their educational requirements raise average commissions by one quarter of a percentage point, costing consumers $5.4 billion per year without improving the quality of brokerage services. The case raises interesting ethical issues which are difficult to resolve.     

Moral Emotions and Ethics in Organisations: Introduction to the Special Issue

The aim of our special issue is to deepen our understanding of the role moral emotions play in organisations as part of a wider discourse on organisational ethics and morality. Unethical workplace behaviours can have far-reaching consequences—job losses, risks to life and health, psychological damage to individuals and groups, social injustice and exploitation and even environmental devastation. Consequently, determining how and why ethical transgressions occur with surprising regularity, despite the inhibiting influence of moral emotions, has considerable theoretical and practical significance to management scholars and managers alike. In this introduction, we present some of the core arguments in the field; notably, the effect of organisational life and bureaucracy on emotions, in general, and moral emotions, in particular; the moral standing of leaders, managers and followers; moral challenges raised by obedience and resistance to organisational power and ethical blindspots induced by what may appear as deeply moral emotions. These issues are explored by a collection of geographically diverse articles in various work contexts, which are thematically organised in terms of (i) moral emotions, ethical behaviour and social pressure, (ii) moral emotions and their consequences within/across levels of analysis, (iii) psychoanalytic perspectives on the management of moral emotions, (iv) virtue and moral emotions and (v) moral emotions and action tendencies. We end by suggesting certain avenues for future research in the hope that the endeavour initiated here will inspire improved practice at work.     

营改增背景下企业税收遵从成本研究

党的十八大提出了进一步优化政府行政改革的进度,强化工作理念的完善,不断提高政府廉政建设,提高政府的工作效率,逐步建立起人民满意的服务型政府。营改増后税收遵从成本影响因素发生了变化,税制因素更为复杂,税法环境趋向严格,征管衔接不畅。按照中央的整体工作部署,税务部门应不断地优化税收征收管理和规范纳税行为,转变税务机关的服务工作的理念,提高纳税服务管理的工作质量,推动纳税服务工作的全面发展,进而为纳税人提供更为高效和优质的纳税服务,提高纳税人对税务机关的满意度。     

新关税条例凸显纳税人权利

税率设置 对进口关税税率的设置、国别适用原则等内容作了重新定义和表述.明确了进口关税设最惠国税率、协定税率、特惠税率和普通税率,以及各种税率的适用原则和国别范围(第九、十条).进一步补充了原产于我国的进口货物和原产地不明的进口货物的税率适用原则.     

Ethics in Finance and Public Policy: The Ibercorp Case

Our research has found that companies which have diverged from traditional management in order to adopt strategies which include ethics, cooperation and a joint vision of management obtain a greater added value. The new challenges of competitiveness require a position of active cooperation between firms and their suppliers, which should be considered as collaborators rather than adversaries. An active cooperation management may well allow the company to improve the quality of its products and its image, speed up delivery to its clients and make its production and trading more agile, thus enhancing the perception the client has of the product. An improved ethical quality in our dealings, generating trust, improving communication and establishing long-term relationships with joint added value, results in higher competitiveness and greater creation of wealth.     

Corporate Ethics and Compliance Programs: A Report, Analysis and Critique

This research reports on the current state of ethics and compliance programs among business organizations in the United States. Members of the Ethics and Compliance Officers Association (ECOA), the premier professional association for managers working in this field, were asked to provide in-depth responses to a series of questions covering various elements of their corporate ethics and compliance programs. The findings from this analysis indicate that ethics and compliance programs have multiple components that are implemented developmentally, are influenced by regulatory and legal efforts and have evolved into more sophisticated approaches that include risk assessment and employee performance appraisal. However, these programs remain vulnerable to sufficient resource allocation by the organization to be fully effective.     

Money,Emotions, and Ethics Across Individuals and Countries

This article presents two separate but closely related studies. We used a first sample to investigate the relationships among individuals’ reports of their income and their subjective well-being, and their approval of unethical behavior in 27 countries and a second sample to investigate the relationship between corruption in 55 countries and their populace’s aggregated feelings of subjective well-being (happiness). Analysis of data from 27,762 working professionals showed that, although reported feelings of subjective well-being were negatively related to their approval of unethical behaviors, income was positively related to their approval of unethical behaviors. In addition, the effects for feelings of subjective well-being were particularly strong for high-income people. Analyses also showed that, after controlling for economic development and other country-level factors, corruption was negatively related to a country’s feelings of happiness. These findings suggest that feelings of subjective well-being may lead to more ethical, less corrupt behavior and that the tolerance of unethical, corrupt behavior may lead to less collective happiness and subjective well-being.     

Ethical Theory and Business Practices: The Case of Discourse Ethics

By focusing on the reasoned debate in the discourse-ethical approach to business ethics, this paper discusses the possibilities and limitations of moral reasoning as well as applied economic and business ethics. Business ethics, it is contended, can be looked at from the standpoint of two criteria: justification and application. These criteria are used to compare three approaches: the Integrative Business Ethics, developed by Swiss philosopher Peter Ulrich, the Cultural Business Ethics of the Nuremberg School in German business ethics, and the concept of “Good Conservation” by Frederick Bird. It is argued that discourse-ethical approaches can be called upon for justifying moral principles. Improving the chances of their application, however, necessitates a good understanding of lifeworlds and culturally developed institutional settings. Bearing this in mind, further research perspectives stressing a linkage between discourse-ethical and critical approaches in social sciences are suggested.Dr. Thomas Beschorner is head of the research group “Social Learning and Sustainability” at University of Oldenburg, Germany and currently Visiting-Professor at McGill University, Montreal, Canada     

The Case for Ethical Non-compete Agreements: Executives Versus Sandwich-Makers

Journal of Business Ethics - Human capital, the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees, can be a powerful driver of firm performance, yet the mobility of human capital raises questions over...     

Multinational Tax Avoidance: Virtue Ethics and the Role of Accountants

The techniques that some large multinational corporations use to reduce their tax liability have come under increasing public scrutiny in recent years, alongside governmental investigations and international commitments aimed at curbing opportunities for tax avoidance. Although discussion of tax avoidance activities, and their regulatory responses, is often conducted with reference to moral concepts (such as ‘fairness’), philosophical analysis of the ethics of multinational tax avoidance remains limited. In particular, the virtue ethics tradition that emphasises the agent (and his/her character) and the performance of specific roles has not been considered in detail. This paper examines how the contemporary virtue ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre can be applied to the issue of multinational tax avoidance, and considers the role that accountants play in these activities. It argues, firstly, that MacIntyre’s approach provides a more useful philosophical analysis of the issue (when compared to utilitarian and deontological approaches for example) and, secondly, that the main parties involved (MNC accountants and regulators) are likely to agree with the main tenets of this approach. The paper also contributes by reconceptualising, using MacIntyre’s scheme, the issue of tax avoidance in relation to Donald Cressey’s ‘fraud triangle’.     

税收遵从的理论模型与政策引申——基于对Allingham-Sandmo框架的考察

本文考察了Allingham-Sandmo模型的基本框架,并在扩展其假设条件的基础上探讨了纳税人与税务机关之间的相互影响和作用。委托—代理模型的结果表明,在受到稽查的范围内,高收入纳税人的申报收入将处于或接近界定稽查分隔点的临界值;相反,在博弈理论模型的序贯博弈状态下,很多受到稽查的纳税人的申报都是不诚实的。稽查概率的确定、稽查策略的选择和处罚力度等要素对模型的结果具有重要影响。     

The Social Norms of Tax Compliance: Evidence from Australia,Singapore, and the United States

Tax compliance is a concern to governments around the world. Prior research (Alm, J. and I. Sanchez: 1995, KYKLOS 48, 3–19) has attributed unexplained inter-country differences in compliance rates to differences in social norms. Economics researchers studying tax compliance in the United States (U.S.) (see for example J. Andreoni et al.: 1998, Journal of Economic Literature 36, 818–860) have called for more attention to social (as opposed to economic) influences on tax compliance. In this study, we extend this prior research by explicitly examining the role of social norms [Cialdini, R. and M. Trost: 1998, The Handbook of Social Psychology (Oxford University Press, New York)] on tax compliance in three different countries. We test our research hypotheses using a hypothetical compliance scenario, which was administered in Australia, Singapore, and the U.S. There were differences in compliance rates and social norms among the three countries. Factor analysis of the social norm questions identified three distinct social norm constructs. Two of these factors were significant in explaining tax compliance behavior. The first and most influential factor was taxpayers’ own personal moral beliefs, along with the beliefs of those close to them (e.g., friends and important others). The second significant factor represented societal views of proper behavior. We conclude that social norms help to explain tax compliance intentions and why tax compliance rates are higher than would be predicted by strictly economic models. Donna D. Bobek is an Associate Professor in the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on taxpayer and tax professional judgment and decision-making, with an emphasis on ethical decision-making. Donna has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting, Organizations & Society, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of the American Taxation Association, Advances in Taxation and Advances in Behavioral Accounting Research. John T. Sweeney is the Ted Saldin Distinguished Professor of Accounting and the Chair of the Department of Accounting at Washington State University. His research interests include accounting ethics and organizational justice. He has published in a number of accounting research journals, including Accounting, Organizations, & Society, The Accounting Review, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Research on Accounting Ethics. Robin W. Roberts is the Al and Nancy Burnett Eminent Scholar and Director of the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. His recent research focuses on ethics and regulation in the accounting profession and on corporate social responsibility. Robin has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting and the Public Interest, Accounting, Organizations & Society, Advances in Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, and Research in Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting.     

The Empirical Assessment of Corporate Ethics: A Case Study

Empirical analyses of the ethics of corporations with the aim to improve the state of corporate ethics are rare. This paper develops an integrated, normative model of corporate ethics by conceptualizing the ethical quality of organizations and by relating this contextual quality to various expressions of immoral behavior. This so-called Ethics Qualities Model for organizations, which contains 21 ethical qualities, allows one to assess the ethical content of institutional groups of individuals. A proper conceptualization is highly relevant both for the empirical corroboration of business ethics theories and for managerial purposes, such as judging individual and group performance or informing external stakeholders. The empirical applicability of the model is illustrated by an explorative case study of a large, globally operating financial institution. This case-study demonstrates that the corporate ethical qualities differ with respect to their perceived optimality as well as to their estimated impact on (un)ethical conduct. The various results provide managers with many clues to understand their organization and to take effective measures to improve the ethical content of their organization.     

Teaching Business Ethics: A Case Study Of An Ethics Across The Curriculum Policy

The faculty within the undergraduate businessdepartment at Nova Southeastern University hasinstituted an Ethics Across The Curriculum Policy. This paper shares the steps the faculty followed inthe development and adoption of this policy. It isour hope that sharing our experiences concerning thispolicy implementation will help others consider asimilar policy. Recommendations are provided forpolicy development.