Client Advocacy in the Global Economy: A Comparison of U.S. and Indian Tax Professionals

Abstract

This study compares the client advocacy attitudes of U.S. tax professionals who do U.S. tax work in the U.S. and Indian tax professionals who do U.S. tax work offshore. We find that experienced U.S. tax professionals have stronger client advocacy attitudes than experienced Indian tax professionals, while the client advocacy attitudes of inexperienced U.S. and inexperienced Indian tax professionals are not significantly different. Further, client advocacy attitudes of experienced U.S. tax professionals are stronger than advocacy attitudes of inexperienced U.S. tax professionals while the client advocacy attitudes of experienced Indian tax professionals are not different from advocacy attitudes of inexperienced Indian tax professionals. We also provide evidence that the client advocacy attitudes of experienced U.S. tax professionals are positively associated with their recommendations of the client-preferred position, while the client advocacy attitudes of experienced Indian tax professionals are not related to their client recommendations. Given the increasing number of Indian tax professionals performing U.S. tax work, our findings should be of interest to researchers, taxing authorities, firms, and taxpayers.