{"title":"The media representation of LuxLeaks: A window onto the normative dynamics of tax avoidance from a socio-legal perspective","authors":"Maryse Mayer, Yves Gendron","doi":"10.1016/j.cpa.2022.102480","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>How do the media represent the complex, opaque and controversial phenomenon of corporate tax<span><span> avoidance? Based on media’s articles pertaining to the international “LuxLeaks” news leak, we identify a contest over tax<span> avoidance representation which reveals a peculiar normative dynamic. We find that the field of tax avoidance is characterized by a vague and highly ambiguous normative framework, as the media rely on very different norms to elaborate distinct normative standpoints to represent LuxLeaks. How can the problem of tax avoidance (and consequently its solution) be delimited if there is disagreement over which norm should be used to assess it? Our study then highlights the need to step back and (re)consider broader assumptions of </span></span>normativity in relation to tax avoidance, to advance the debate. We propose to import </span></span><span>Baier’s (2013)</span> socio-legal perspective on normativity into the tax realm, to better understand not just the legal and social norms as distinct normative systems but also their interdependence. Based on discursive insights from the press, we map out the normative structure specific to LuxLeaks, as conceptualized using Baier’s platform. To exemplify how this kind of conceptualization can nurture future research, we initiate a reflection on how normativity could evolve in the tax avoidance field, considering possible implications of the press representations analyzed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48078,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on Accounting","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Perspectives on Accounting","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104523542200065X","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
How do the media represent the complex, opaque and controversial phenomenon of corporate tax avoidance? Based on media’s articles pertaining to the international “LuxLeaks” news leak, we identify a contest over tax avoidance representation which reveals a peculiar normative dynamic. We find that the field of tax avoidance is characterized by a vague and highly ambiguous normative framework, as the media rely on very different norms to elaborate distinct normative standpoints to represent LuxLeaks. How can the problem of tax avoidance (and consequently its solution) be delimited if there is disagreement over which norm should be used to assess it? Our study then highlights the need to step back and (re)consider broader assumptions of normativity in relation to tax avoidance, to advance the debate. We propose to import Baier’s (2013) socio-legal perspective on normativity into the tax realm, to better understand not just the legal and social norms as distinct normative systems but also their interdependence. Based on discursive insights from the press, we map out the normative structure specific to LuxLeaks, as conceptualized using Baier’s platform. To exemplify how this kind of conceptualization can nurture future research, we initiate a reflection on how normativity could evolve in the tax avoidance field, considering possible implications of the press representations analyzed.
期刊介绍:
Critical Perspectives on Accounting aims to provide a forum for the growing number of accounting researchers and practitioners who realize that conventional theory and practice is ill-suited to the challenges of the modern environment, and that accounting practices and corporate behavior are inextricably connected with many allocative, distributive, social, and ecological problems of our era. From such concerns, a new literature is emerging that seeks to reformulate corporate, social, and political activity, and the theoretical and practical means by which we apprehend and affect that activity. Research Areas Include: • Studies involving the political economy of accounting, critical accounting, radical accounting, and accounting''s implication in the exercise of power • Financial accounting''s role in the processes of international capital formation, including its impact on stock market stability and international banking activities • Management accounting''s role in organizing the labor process • The relationship between accounting and the state in various social formations • Studies of accounting''s historical role, as a means of "remembering" the subject''s social and conflictual character • The role of accounting in establishing "real" democracy at work and other domains of life • Accounting''s adjudicative function in international exchanges, such as that of the Third World debt • Antagonisms between the social and private character of accounting, such as conflicts of interest in the audit process • The identification of new constituencies for radical and critical accounting information • Accounting''s involvement in gender and class conflicts in the workplace • The interplay between accounting, social conflict, industrialization, bureaucracy, and technocracy • Reappraisals of the role of accounting as a science and technology • Critical reviews of "useful" scientific knowledge about organizations