Critical Perspectives on Taxation: In praise of heterophony

Abstract

Given global disruption and current challenges that place increasing pressure on tax systems, we highlight, in this editorial, the pressing need for a critical gaze on tax. We note how this provides meaningful opportunities for critical researchers. We begin with reflections on developments in tax research within critical accounting and other disciplines since the first tax special issue in 2010. We then discuss how the papers in this second special issue adopt a critical gaze, and engage in ‘myth busting,’ dealing with: the role of legal scholarship in the Finnish tax field; new ways of conceptualising and approaching wealth taxation; the operation of co-operative compliance programmes for large taxpayers in the UK and the Netherlands; and the role of the media in reporting tax scandals. We reflect on what it means to be a critical scholar, and in particular a critical tax scholar, providing some inspiration for budding critical tax researchers in the form of ‘critical moves’. In our concluding thoughts, we call for heterophony, not just many voices but many different voices, a ‘simultaneous otherness,’ to strengthen critical research in tax, and soften disciplinary boundaries and methodological straightjackets. We emphasise how critical tax scholarship not only matters but provides exciting new agendas for creative, impactful research.