‘Paying taxes is losing money’: A qualitative study on institutional logics in the tax consultancy field in Romania

Abstract

The role of the tax consultancy industry in promoting tax avoidance products is under increasing scrutiny in the Western world. Various societal actors, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, academics and the media, have voiced their dissatisfaction with the negative effects of tax avoidance on state budgets. This is indicative of a changing attitude towards tax avoidance practices, and the public’s expectations of tax consultancy activities. Applying an institutional logics framework, this paper interprets the traditional values of tax consultancy as articulating commercial logic, and identifies new societal developments exerting pressure for ethical practices in the tax consultancy profession. While there are visible signs of both logics currently coexisting in Western countries, less is known about how these logics manifest in contexts beyond the Western world. We take an in-depth look at tax consultancy in Romania, a country that continuously strives to balance the remnants of its communist past with its newly claimed European identity. We examine the dynamics of these two institutional logics and how the features of Romanian society affect them.