Is the top leadership of the organizations promoting tax avoidance?

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to study the roles of CEOs, board of directors and accounting/auditing firms in the adoption of tax avoidance schemas. Design/methodology/approach A cross-national analysis with data from 22 countries is used to examine the relationship between tax avoidance and the ethical qualities of the top leadership of the organizations, the firm’s profile and the tax/legal system characteristics. Findings The results show that the board of directors is the actor that contributes more to control tax avoidance cross-nationally, whereas the CEOs’ role to contend this practice is less relevant. The outcomes for accounting/auditing firms reveal that the stronger standards these firms have, the more tax avoidance is observed. Originality/value The methodology (cross-national analysis) and dimensions examined (role of the actors/instances of discretional power) in this inquiry offer a novel perspective to the analysis of tax avoidance, as most scholarly studies have taken a national approach and have mainly focused on studying the characteristics of the firms involved in tax avoidance.