SMEs tax minimization as shared responsibility

Abstract

Prevailing criticism of tax minimization strategies is impacting contemporary business decisions. While extant research has focused on an alleged ‘moral’ shift among large accounting firms and corporates, little is known about tax responsibilities in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Thus, we examine the following research question: How do SMEs and tax accountants perceive responsibility within the context of taxation? Our empirical investigation involves semi-structured interviews with accountants and their SME clients in Italy. Our findings point to an entanglement of legal, economic, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities enacted in mundane tax strategy work. We propose a model of ‘shared responsibility’, aiming to clarify the complementary role of SMEs, tax accountants, and state actions in the curtailment of public funding, ultimately affecting the survival of all actors involved. Our work contributes to growing scholarship on business taxation as a form of social responsibility by emphasizing the shared nature of such responsibility, as well as showing how a current reliance on reputational risks to incentivise more responsible tax behaviour is ill suited to the SME context.