nach oben

Journal of Business Ethics

Erschienen in:

01.09.2014

The Curious Case of Corporate Tax Avoidance: Is it Socially Irresponsible?

Erschienen in: Journal of Business Ethics | Ausgabe 1/2014

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config

KI-gestützte Suche

Aus

Abstract

In contrast to many aspects of the social responsibility of business, CSR scholarship has been largely silent on the issue of the payment of corporate tax. This is curious because such tax payments are often considered a fundamental and easily measured example of a company’s citizenship behavior. However, because the payment of corporate tax can often be legally avoided, this activity represents a boundary condition for CSR. If the law and CSR suggest that a company should pay its fair share of tax, yet many successful companies actively avoid this social obligation, should they be considered socially irresponsible. This paper explores the issue of tax avoidance and the implications it has for any credible definition and measure of CSR. It also highlights an aspect of corporate practice that is deliberately hidden from public view.

Vorheriger Artikel The Corporate Ethical Virtues Scale: Factorial Invariance Across Organizational Samples

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Tax minimization is defined as looking for ways to minimize the tax bill in relation to transactions usually undertaken, whereas tax avoidance is defined as transactions entered into solely for the purpose of generating a tax benefit (Bowler 2009, Para. 2.5).

I use the word “game” for two reasons. First, tax specialists often refer to their activities as “gaming the system.” Second, some theories of tax evasion are couched in terms of game theory.

In April, 2012 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for this explanatory journalism.

Alley, C., & Bentley, D. (2005). A remodeling of Adam Smith’s tax design principles. http://epublications.bond.edu.au/law_pubs/45.

Anderson, S., Collins, C., Klinger, S., & Pizzigati, S. (2011, August 31). The massive CEO rewards for tax dodging. The Institute for Policy Studies. Washington, DC.

Avi-Yonah, R. S. (2008). Corporate social responsibility and strategic tax behavior. In W. Schön (Ed.), Tax and corporate governance (pp. 183–198). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. http://law.bepress.com/umichlwps-olin/art65.

Bednar, M. K., Boivie, S., & Prince, N. R. (2013). Burr under the saddle: How media coverage influences strategic change. Organizational Science, 24(3), 910–925.CrossRef

Bergin, T. (2013). How big tech stays offline on tax. Reuters (23 July); Chicago Tribune (23 July); The Age (24 July).

Bowler, T. (2009, February). Countering tax avoidance in the UK: Which way forward? Institute for Fiscal Studies. Discussion Paper No. 7.

Braithwaite, V. (Ed.). (2003). Taxing democracy: Understanding tax avoidance and evasion. Ashgate: Aldershot.

Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate social performance. Academy of Management Review, 4(4), 497–505.

Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Towards the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34(4), 39–48.CrossRef

Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of definitional construct. Business and Society, 38(3), 268–295.CrossRef

Charlemagne. (2013). The flying taxman. The Economist, 407(8832), 51.

Christensen, J. (2011). The looting continues: Tax havens and corruption. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 7(2), 177–196.CrossRef

Christensen, J., & Murphy, R. (2004). The social irresponsibility of corporate tax avoidance. Development, 7(3), 37–44.CrossRef

Clausing, K. A. (2011, March 28). The revenue effects of multinational firm income shifting. Tax Notes, 1580–1586.

Davis, K. (1973). The case for and against business assumption of social responsibilities. Academy of Management Journal, 16(2), 312–322.CrossRef

Davis, A. K., Guenther, D. A., Krull, L. K., & Williams, B. M. (2012). Taxes and corporate accountability reporting: Is paying taxes viewed as socially responsible? Working paper. Eugene, OR: Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon.

Devinney, T. M. (2009). Is the socially responsible corporation a myth? The good, the bad, and the ugly of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(2), 44–56.CrossRef

Dowling, G. R., & Gardberg, N. A. (2012). Keeping score: The challenges of measuring corporate reputation. In M. L. Barnett & T. G. Pollock (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of corporate reputations (pp. 34–68). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Duhigg, C., & Kocieniewski, D. (2012, April 28). How Apple sidesteps billions in taxes. The New York Times.

Ebrahimi, H. (2012, October 19). Starbucks faces further criticism over its tax practices. Telegraph.

Elster, J. (1989). Social norms and economic theory. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 3(4), 99–117.CrossRef

Erle, B., Hickey, L. G., Doherty, R. H., & Flexman, B. P. (2004). Tax in the boardroom. London: KPMG International.

Finch, J. (2004, March 18). Be fair plea as tax loopholes targeted. The Guardian.

Freedman, J. (2010). Improving (not perfecting) tax legislation: Rules and principles revisited. British Tax Review, 6, 717–736.

Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times Magazine, 32–33.

Gilders, F., Taylor, J., Richardson, G., & Walpole, M. (2004). Understanding taxation law: An interactive approach. Sydney: LexisNexis Butterworths.

Gongloff, M. (2012, September 20). Apple, Google, Microsoft avoid taxes by keeping billions in profits offshore: Senate report. Huff Post Business.

Hanlon, M. (2003). What can we infer about a firm’s taxable income from its financial statements? National Tax Journal, 56(4), 831–863.

Helman, C. (2011, April 13). What the top US companies pay in taxes. Forbs.com.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking fast and slow. London: Penguin.

Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263–291.CrossRef

Keightley, M. P. (2013, January 18). An analysis of where American companies report profits: Indications of profit shifting. Congressional Research Service, 7-5700.

Kemper, A., & Martin, R. L. (2010). After the fall: The global financial crisis as a test of corporate social responsibility theories. European Management Review, 7(4), 229–239.CrossRef

KLD Research & analytics, Inc. KLD Ratings Data. http://datalib.library.ualberta.ca/data/KLDRatings/Ratings%20Criteria%20Description_All%20Years.pdf. Accessed 13 August 2013.

Kleinbard, E. D. (2011). Stateless income. Florida Tax Review, 11(9), 699–773.

Klinger, S., Anderson, S., Collins, C., Cavanagh, J., & Pizzigati, S. (2011, October 3). America loses: Corporations that take tax holidays slash jobs. The Institute for Policy Studies. Washington, DC.

Kocieniewski, D. (2011a, March 24). GE’s strategies let it avoid taxes altogether. The New York Times.

Kocieniewski, D. (2011b, May 2). U.S. business has high tax rates but pays less. The New York Times.

Lanis, R., & Richardson, G. (2011). The effect of board of director composition on corporate tax aggressiveness. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 30(1), 50–70.CrossRef

Lanis, R., & Richardson, G. (2012). Corporate social responsibility and tax aggressiveness: An empirical analysis. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 31(1), 86–108.CrossRef

McCormack, J. (2011, November 17). GE filed 57,000-page tax return, paid no taxes on $14 billion in profits. The Weekly Standard.

McGee, R. W. (2006). Three views on the ethics of tax evasion. Journal of Business Ethics, 67(1), 15–35.CrossRef

McIntyre, R. S., Gardner, M., Wilkins, R. J., & Phillips, R. (2011). Corporate tax payers & corporate tax dodgers 2008–10. Washington, D.C.: Citizens for Tax Justice & the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2001). Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective. Academy of Management Review, 26(1), 117–127.

Mirrlees, J. (2011). Tax by design: The Mirrlees review (pp. 21–45). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moulds, J. (2012, October 21). Anger grows over large companies’ tax bills as attention turns to eBay and Ikea. The Guardian.

Paine, L., Deshpandé, R., Margolis, J. D., & Bettcher, E. (2005). Up to code: Does your company’s conduct meet world-class standards? Harvard Business Review, 83(12), 122–133.

Palazzo, G., & Richter, U. (2005). CSR business as usual? The case of the tobacco industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 61(4), 387–401.CrossRef

Preuss, L. (2012). Responsibility in paradise? The adoption of CSR tools by companies domiciled in tax havens. Journal of Business Ethics, 110(1), 1–14.CrossRef

Prior, D., Surroca, J., & Tribó, J. A. (2008). Are socially responsible managers really ethical? Exploring the relationship between earnings management and corporate social responsibility. Corporate Governance, 16(3), 160–177.CrossRef

Schön, W. (Ed.). (2008). Tax and corporate governance. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

Sikka, P. (2003, November 17). A taxing account of corporate social responsibility. The Guardian.

Sikka, P. (2004, February 6). Nobody is called to account. The Guardian.

Sikka, P. (2011). Smoke and mirrors: Corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance. Accounting Forum, 34(3–4), 153–168.

Smith, A. (1776). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. London: Methuen and Co. (Ed. E. Cannan, 1904).

Snape, J. (2007). Corporate tax reform—politics and public law. British Tax Review, 4, 374–404.

Stiglitz, J. E. (1985). The general theory of tax avoidance. National Tax Journal, 38(3), 325–338.

Waddock, S. A. (2003). Myths and realities of social investing. Organization & Environment, 16(3), 369–380.CrossRef

Watson, L. (2011). Corporate social responsibility and tax aggressiveness: An examination of unrecognized tax benefits. Working paper. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.

Yani-de-Soriano, M., Javed, U., & Yousafzai, S. (2012). Can an industry be socially responsible if its products harm consumers? The case of online gambling. Journal of Business Ethics, 110(4), 481–497.CrossRef

Titel: The Curious Case of Corporate Tax Avoidance: Is it Socially Irresponsible?
Publikationsdatum: 01.09.2014
Erschienen in: Journal of Business Ethics / Ausgabe 1/2014
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1862-4

Springer Professional

Abstract

Bitte loggen Sie sich ein, um Zugang zu Ihrer Lizenz zu erhalten.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Weitere Artikel der Ausgabe 1/2014

A Rose by Any Other Name: Are Family Firms Named After Their Founding Families Rewarded More for Their New Product Introductions?

Consumers’ Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: Scale Development and Validation

Feelings that Make a Difference: How Guilt and Pride Convince Consumers of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Consumption Choices

Does it Pay to Be Ethical? Examining the Relationship Between Organisations’ Ethical Culture and Innovativeness

Exploring the Role of CSR in the Organizational Identity of Hospitality Companies: A Case from the Spanish Tourism Industry

The Influence of Business Ethics Education on Moral Efficacy, Moral Meaningfulness, and Moral Courage: A Quasi-experimental Study

Premium Partner