Tax planning as a profession

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr.-Ing. Silke Ötsch
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 418216288

The project deals with tax professionals’ normative justifications in the German field of tax planning. Hitherto, contributions on tax planning primarily dealt with legal, technical, political and economic issues. The role of actors – especially of professionals – was only partly addressed in tax research, respectively related to professionals in Anglo-Saxon contexts. It is unclear, why, at the same time, professionals in tax planning have a high status and privileges due to their professional role while carrying out activities in a regulatory grey area, criticized in public opinion. Sociology of the professions has highlighted the professions’ dual character: On one hand professions should contribute to the common good by linking professional activities with social basic values (such as bewaring the rule of the law). On the other hand, they benefit from regulated framework conditions that restrict competition and make it possible to meet professional standards. The status of a profession is constantly negotiated between professionals, stakeholders and the state. Especially in situations of crisis, professionals must proof their legitimation. How do professionals legitimize their activities in the recent situation, characterized by transnationalisation in tax planning and a growing concern about the consequences? The project should bringing together research from professional and organizational studies, data based on regulation initiatives and inquiries and own qualitative explorations. In the first phase, information about the field will be derived from existing literature and interviews with experts (researchers, associations, regulators und tax authorities, NGOs) concerning types of professionals and organisations active in Germany and their activities. Besides, information about the legal framework and cognitive backgrounds (such as educational systems) should be gathered. The core part of the project consists of around 40 qualitative semi-structured interviews with different kinds of professionals, namely from accountancy firms, advocates, companies’ tax departments, tax advisers and banks. The professionals will be asked on their assessment and handling of ambiguous cases, their self-understanding as a professional and their ideas on taxation. The interviews should show how professionals deal with ambivalent situations, how they justify their activities, whether and how they relate to societal core values, how different types of professionals relate to each other, which notions of the profession exist and how they understand the societal role of taxation. How do tax professionals interpret the notion of the profession, related to self-legitimation in a situation in which both practices of tax planning such as the ‘tax state’ are subject to a crisis of legitimation, that means, in a situation in which justifications are contested and may be replaced by alternative ones.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants