7 research outputs found
NÄr gode rÄd er dyre: RÄdgivermagt og skat i Danmark
NĂ„r magten i Danmark skal udredes, bĂžr der rettes fokus mod en sĂŠrlig gruppe af eksperter, som rĂ„dgiver bĂ„de stater, virksomheder og privatpersoner i skattespĂžrgsmĂ„l. Som rĂ„dgivere har disse eksperter opnĂ„et en form for diskret magt: deres arbejde er afgĂžrende for bĂ„de udformningen og udmĂžntningen af vores skattesystem, men undersĂžges og diskuteres sjĂŠldent. Betydningen af rĂ„dgivernes magt er sĂŠrligt relevant i lyset af deres bidrag til skattespekulation og stigende ulighed. I denne artikel giver vi et overblik over eksisterende forskning om disse eksperter og beskriver deres virke i Danmark samt udlĂŠgger, hvordan skatteeksperter udĂžver bĂ„de instrumentel, strukturel og infrastrukturel magt. Vi foreslĂ„r en rĂŠkke forskningsspĂžrgsmĂ„l, som fokuserer bredt pĂ„ rĂ„dgivernes indflydelse pĂ„ demokratiet, og som bĂžr tages op i afdĂŠkningen af denne ârĂ„dgivermagtâ
The New Politics of Global Tax Governance: Taking Stock a Decade After the Financial Crisis
The financial crisis of 2007â2009 is now broadly recognised as a once-in-a-generation inflection point in the history of global economic governance. It has also prompted a reconsideration of established paradigms in international political economy (IPE) scholarship. Developments in global tax governance open a window onto these ongoing changes, and in this essay we discuss four recent volumes on the topic drawn from IPE and beyond, arguing against an emphasis on institutional stability and analyses that consider taxation in isolation. In contrast, we identify unprecedented changes in tax cooperation that reflect a significant contemporary reconfiguration of the politics of global economic governance writ large. To develop these arguments, we discuss the links between global tax governance and four fundamental changes underway in IPE: the return of the state through more activist policies; the global power shift towards large emerging markets; the politics of austerity and populism; and the digitalisation of the economy
Professional Competition in Global Tax Reform: Transparency in Global Wealth Chains
In the wake of the Great Recession, international corporate taxation has risen to the top of the global political agenda. With states seeking to shore up national fiscal systems, the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project has emerged as the key response in this regard. Among 15 action points, Action 13 on corporate tax transparency has been particularly prominent. By shaping the feasibility of corporate tax strategies and the information resources available to national tax authorities, the Action 13 policy recommendations will fundamentally reconfigure the context of corporate tax behaviour and global wealth chains, i.e. strategies and structures for wealth creation and protection in the global economy. How did these new critical rules come about? Unfortunately, little is known about the micro-level process, dynamics and actors of the BEPS project. This paper provides an original case study of the changing international tax system and the regulatory context of global wealth chains, based on an investigation of the professionals engaged in global tax reform. Drawing on observations, interviews and sequence analysis of professional careers, it studies the dynamics of the professional policy environment and identifies distinct career and knowledge trends. The paper shows that professional competition for prestige and knowledge played a central role in the complex, transnational policy process. Operating within a technical policy environment, far removed from high-level politics, professionals seeking to make their mark on new standards for corporate tax transparency mobilised expertise and network capital, shaping what could be discussed, the criteria for accepted arguments, and who was listened to in the policy process, thus critically affecting the final policy outcomes
Transnational Struggles to Change International Taxation
In the contemporary age of global capitalism, international taxation â the taxation of income earned
from cross-border economic activity â has become a high-stakes issue. International taxation touches
upon the foundations of modern society as an arena for struggle between nation-states and other
stakeholders concerning government revenues, economic markets, political ideas, and â above all â
social change. However, most existing research on international taxation and, indeed, on the global
political economy at large, is dedicated to studying the effects of stable structures and sees change
through periodic snapshots of evolving orders. As a result, the dynamic processes enabling and
governing change remain underexplored. This dissertation promotes a change-oriented approach to
studying complex international contexts that unites insights from International Political Economy on
global political-economic orders and from Sociology on micro-social struggles over power and
authority. These insights enable an analysis of the dynamics of change in international taxation, and
I set out a conceptual language emphasizing the modes, contexts, and sources of change . To develop
my analysis, I apply a relational, qualitative and case-based methodology to study developments in
international taxation across four levels: Global tax governance, the transnational field of corporate
taxation, expert policymaking, and professional practice. I find that systemic change is underway in
the core institutional foundations of global tax governance, namely an expansion of multilateral
cooperation, institutionalized enforcement, and sovereignty-pooling by states. These changes are
entwined with changes in state activism, geopolitical shifts, austerity, populism, and economic
transformations. Those broad political changes reverberate in the transnational field of corporate
taxation, which has seen a swift ascent of critical activist influence, politicization, destabilization of
the dominant professional-technical logic, and increasing conflict over established social hierarchies.
Expert policymaking has largely resisted the challenges of critical outsiders, but its historical isolation
from popular politics and new expert resources is under scrutiny, opening possibilities for new
patterns of influence in technical expert proceedings. In professional practice, the core of everyday
work remains remarkably stable despite, and because of, broader social change, as professional
identities are entwined with transnational (political) institutions
New Players, New Game: The role of the public and political debate in the development of action on international tax issues
The last few years have seen an enormous rise in public concern and dissatisfaction with the taxation of multinational companies (MNCs). In the wake of the financial crisis, public and political interest in corporate taxation rose significantly, with debt-challenged states looking to shore up national fiscal systems, and attention focused on corporate tax practices deemed overly aggressive or immoral. International tax rules as a matter of âfront pageâ public debate is an unusual situation; while taxation itself is always and everywhere a political topic, the fine workings of international taxation has largely been the domain of technical debates between experts. This is no longer the case: issues such as tax havens, transfer pricing, and structures like the âDouble Irish Dutch Sandwichâ have become topics of popular debates and campaigns. These issues have gone from being solely the subject of technical expert debates to being topics of public interest and popular media reporting. In consequence, new political initiatives have also progressed at an unexpectedly high pace. How has this rapid and unexpected change come about? Existing accounts of international tax change have emphasised the role played by international state relations, International Organisationsâ standard-setting, the influence of transnational elites or the role of leaks in driving lawmaking. These analyses have often emphasised formal policymaking processes. Some accounts have zoomed in on the role of activists, in particular the Tax Justice Network, analysing the tactics and strategy of individual âoutsiderâ organisations in changing public and policy debates. This paper offers a complementary narrative of the dynamics of international tax change, looking at the role of various actors in shaping popular debates on international tax issues