An Empirical Analysis of the Ethical Reasoning of Tax Practitioners.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	An Empirical Analysis of the Ethical Reasoning of Tax Practitioners.
Authors:	Doyle, Elaine¹ elaine.doyle@ul.ie, Frecknall Hughes, Jane² j.frecknall-hughes@open.ac.uk, Summers, Barbara³ bs@lubs.leeds.ac.uk
Source:	Journal of Business Ethics. May2013, Vol. 114 Issue 2, p325-339. 15p. 7 Charts, 2 Graphs.
Subject Terms:	Ethical problems, Control groups, Tax consultants, Defining Issues Test, Social context, Socialization, Ethics
Geographic Terms:	Ireland
Abstract:	How tax practitioners approach ethical dilemmas remains generally unexplored in academic literature. We use here Rest's original Defining Issues Test (Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, ; Moral development. Advances in research and theory. New York: Praeger Publishers, ), combined with a tax context-specific test and in conjunction with a control group of non-tax specialists, to examine tax practitioners' moral reasoning in a social and tax context. We investigate: (i) the effect of a tax context on issues raised (finding that practitioners generally reason at lower levels than in social scenarios); (ii) whether the profession attracts people who reason at certain levels (finding that it does not); and (iii) whether practitioners are affected by training/socialization in their professional context (finding that that they are). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

Description
Abstract:	How tax practitioners approach ethical dilemmas remains generally unexplored in academic literature. We use here Rest's original Defining Issues Test (Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, ; Moral development. Advances in research and theory. New York: Praeger Publishers, ), combined with a tax context-specific test and in conjunction with a control group of non-tax specialists, to examine tax practitioners' moral reasoning in a social and tax context. We investigate: (i) the effect of a tax context on issues raised (finding that practitioners generally reason at lower levels than in social scenarios); (ii) whether the profession attracts people who reason at certain levels (finding that it does not); and (iii) whether practitioners are affected by training/socialization in their professional context (finding that that they are). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	01674544
DOI:	10.1007/s10551-012-1347-x