Social responsibility, Machiavellianism and tax avoidance: a study of Hong Kong tax professionals

	Wednesday 18 October, 2006 Guest Speaker: Professor Richard Simmons This seminar was based on Professor Simmons’ recent paper with William Shafer (Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Download the presentation (ppt, 92kb)
Richard Simmons (left) and Anthony Forsyth

The paper contains findings of a study investigating the effects of attitudes toward the perceived importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility and Machiavellianism on professional tax practitioners' willingness to advocate aggressive avoidance schemes on behalf of corporate clients.

The authors hypothesize that practitioners who perceive corporate ethics and social responsibility as more important will judge aggressive avoidance less favorably, and accordingly will estimate a lower likelihood of acquiescence in such schemes.

They also hypothesize that practitioners with stronger Machiavellian orientations will be less likely to feel that corporate ethics and social responsibility are important, and more likely to judge aggressive tax avoidance schemes favorably.

The findings, based on a survey of tax professionals in Hong Kong, support the hypotheses.

About Richard

Richard Simmons is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, having qualified in London with KPMG.

He has specialized in taxation since 1987, and his PhD, received from the University of London in 2002, was written on international corporate tax competition.

His current areas of research interest include corporate tax competition, tax reform and tax ethics. Currently he is a Visiting Academic with the Department of Business Law and Taxation and a Visiting Fellow with the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute.

Acting Group Director

Anthony Forsyth
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