Taxpayers' perceptions of the ideal tax adviser: Playing safe or saving dollars?
Collections | ANU Centre for Tax System Integrity (CTSI) |
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Title: | Taxpayers' perceptions of the ideal tax adviser: Playing safe or saving dollars? |
Author(s): | Sakurai, Yuka Braithwaite, Valerie Australian National University. Centre for Tax System Integrity Australian Taxation Office |
Publisher: | Centre for Tax System Integrity (CTSI), Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University Australian Taxation Office |
Series/Report no.: | Working paper (Centre for Tax System Integrity) ; no. 5 |
Description: | This paper empirically examines Australian taxpayers’ perceptions of their tax practitioners
and ‘ideal’ tax practitioners, using a sample of 2040 randomly selected Australian taxpayers
who completed the Community Hopes, Fears and Actions Survey (Braithwaite, 2000). This
research identifies the basic dimensions that underlie taxpayer judgements of the attributes of
their ideal tax practitioner. One kind of tax practitioner sought by certain taxpayers is the
‘creative accountant, aggressive tax planning type’. Here the taxpayer is also looking for a
practitioner who is well networked and knows what the Australian Taxation Office (Tax
Office) is checking at a particular time. This is by far the least popular preference among
ordinary individual taxpayers, but clearly one of the greatest concern to tax authorities. A
second type of practitioner sought by taxpayers is one who engages in ‘cautious
minimisation of tax’. Unlike the creative accountants, practitioners of this type avoid
conflict, while being sophisticated about identifying opportunity to minimise tax. The most
popular type of practitioner with taxpayers is the ‘low risk, no fuss’ practitioner who is
honest and risk averse. The data also show that taxpayers are likely to find tax practitioners
who have the attributes they value most highly in a practitioner. Further work is needed to
understand the matching process, in particular, how high risk practitioners and high risk
taxpayers form their partnerships. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1885/154896 |
ISBN: | 0 642 76804 8 |
ISSN: | 1444-8211 |
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