Knowledge and power: the role of the Big Four in the competitive disharmonization of global corporate tax avoidance regulations

Abstract

The Big Four professional services firms - PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY - are MNCs that exist to promote, sanction, and regularise the behaviour and practices of other MNCs. They act as reputational intermediaries that embody and enact informal industry norms and practices, and in so doing they potentially govern both other MNCs and governments. Sometimes they even seek to govern on behalf of them. Whether advising or acting as private governors, their services are neither purely technical nor neutral because as they serve the interests of MNCs, they also construct and enhance their legitimacy and discursive power. This chapter looks at their role in both facilitating, and discursively defending, global corporate tax avoidance, a major issue in recent years as MNCs use their ability to operate across multiple jurisdictions to take advantage of opportunities to reduce or eliminate their taxation obligations.