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Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics pp 1–6Cite as

Ethical Analysis of Tax Avoidance

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Synonyms

Tax minimization; Tax mitigation; Tax planning

Introduction

Corporate tax avoidance is generally used as an umbrella term to refer to all tax minimization practices which stay within the legal boundaries. Being characterized as legal, tax avoidance is distinguished from tax evasion, which refers to illegal actions to reduce tax liabilities, typically entailing deception and concealment. In the last decade, the practice of tax avoidance has been subject to intense public and political attention. The media, NGOs, and the general public recurrently scrutinize and “name and shame” companies not only for their illegal tax practices but also when they consider such practices as unfair, outrageous, and/or immoral.

Some major lines of argumentations clearly explain why tax avoidance has become a relevant issue for the business ethics debate, above and beyond the purely legal sphere. First, the nature and functions of corporate tax payments are intrinsically ethical: they correspond to...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IESEG School of Management, Paris and Lille, France, Lille, France

    Simone de Colle

  2. Department of Management, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy

    Francesco Scarpa

Authors
  1. Simone de Colle
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  2. Francesco Scarpa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simone de Colle .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Deborah C Poff

  2. Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

Section Editor information

  1. Past-President, Brandon University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Deborah Poff

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Cite this entry

de Colle, S., Scarpa, F. (2022). Ethical Analysis of Tax Avoidance. In: Poff, D.C., Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_1091-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_1091-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1

  • eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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