Illuminating the State-Profession Relationship: Accountants acting as Department of trade and Industry Investigators

Sikka, Prem; Willmott, Hugh

doi:10.1006/cpac.1995.1031

Cited by 69 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…Corporate share of total UK tax take has dropped from 11.5 per cent in 1997/98 to 7.7 per cent in (BDO Stoy Hayward, 2004) and amounts to less than 2.5% of the British GDP, the lowest ever (Mitchell and Sikka, 2005 Sociological literature draws attention to a close (but complex) relationship between the state and accountancy profession (Johnson, 1972(Johnson, , 1980 which enables the state to manage and displace its crisis of legitimacy ( Sikka and Willmott, 1995b). Such theories now face additional layers of complexity as accountancy firms develop and market tax avoidance schemes t hat have a potential to deprive the state of large amounts of tax revenues.…”

Section: Discussion and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of accountancy firms in tax avoidance: Some evidence and issues

2005

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As entrepreneurial businesses, accountancy firms have supplemented their traditional trade of selling accounting and auditing services by diversifying into a variety of other products and services. They have developed organisational struc tures and strategies to sell tax avoidance schemes to corporations and wealthy individuals. The sale of such services shifts tax burdens to less mobile capital and less well-off citizens. It also erodes the tax base and brings the firms into direct conflict with the state. This paper provides some evidence of the strategies and tactics used by accountancy firms to sell schemes that enable their clients to avoid corporate, sales and payroll taxes. Such strategies stimulate reflections upon the possible trajectories in the development of accountancy firms and social consequences of their trade.

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Section: Discussion and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of accountancy firms in tax avoidance: Some evidence and issues

2005

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“…1 At the theoretical level, the literature pertaining to the professionalization of accountancy in an Anglo-American environment 2 has drawn from conceptualisations to be found in the sociology of the professions literature (Larson, 1977;Macdonald, 1995) and within this context many authors have examined the state-profession relationship (Willmott, 1986, Richardson, 1989, Chua & Poullaos, 1993Roslender, 1992;Sikka & Willmott, 1995a, 1995bWalker and Shackleton, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial corporatism: A portal to power for accountants in Brazil

Agrizzi

Sian

2015

Critical Perspectives on Accounting

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The political history of Brazil includes a period of colonization by the Portuguese, the establishment of an imperial court, a period of rule by various military juntas, dictatorship and democracy. Drawing on archival based research conducted in Brazil and informed by theorisations of the contribution of interest governance to social order and corporatism, this study focuses on the transformation of the modus operandi of accountants and their ascendancy in this country. The study covers the period between 1902 and 1946, in which dictatorship, increasing centralisation and bureaucratisation eventually gave way to a fledgling democracy. Early in the twentieth century, the state pursued a policy of sponsoring the syndicalisation of workers as a means of eliciting cooperation in exchange for (what was essentially a simulacrum of) access. In accountancy, this early form of association was constrained in many ways, but it also laid the foundations for the accounting syndicates to press for legislation for improved education and for national professional organisation in 1946.3

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“…The relationship between (fractions of) capital and the (elements of) the state is complex and certainly not fixed. In the UK, accounting firms and accounting bodies have been adept at mobilizing the state to secure and expand markets for their services and to shield them from critical public scrutiny relating to allegations of audit failures and money laundering (Sikka and Willmott, 1995;Mitchell et al, 1998). Not only are these firms and bodies formed `in the context of government regulation' but, as our case study of auditor liability has shown, they have continued to flourish in that context' (Hopwood, 1985: 13).…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the state has suppressed critical reports and demonstrated unwillingness to investigate anti-social practices (Sikka and Willmott, 1995;Mitchell, Sikka and Willmott, 1998). Exceptionally, when the activities of accounting firms have threatened tax revenues and with it the operations of the state's machinery, the state has occasionally investigated and prosecuted major accounting firms (Sikka, 2008a).…”

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confidence: 99%