Factors influencing tax experts’ perceptions of the value of expertise in their daily tax work. Exploring the field through a Bourdieusian lens

This thesis explores how tax experts value different facets of expertise in their daily work, and how the manner and degree to which expertise is valued and experienced varies across the field. Over the past decade, a series of high profile multinational tax avoidance scandals has put the work of tax expert domains firmly within the public and political imagination. The catalyst for this study comes against a backdrop of societal and political scrutiny of the work of tax experts both in corporate settings, and acting as advisers. As tax experts are the mediators of tax practice, the way in which they value and deploy their expertise influences compliance and the implementation of policy. Using a Bourdieusian lens, their expertise functions as a form of capital that gives them power in the field. Expertise has many facets, including innovation, knowledge and technical competence. This thesis explores the factors and circumstances that influence a tax expert’s self-perceptions of the relative value of these facets of expertise within an overall portfolio of expert capitals. Data for this research came in two phases. First, from a large survey questionnaire directed at tax experts (N=1061) working across fifty-nine countries. Second, from sixty-eight semi-structured interviews conducted with practicing tax experts working across eleven countries. All of our respondents worked in tax, were at various career stages, and held appointments across all levels of management. They worked across a broader that usual range of tax expert domains. This dataset facilitates an exploration of how tax experts’ experiences of these facets vary by regulatory context, experience, gender, and sector. Bourdieusian theoretical framing is used to theorise the factors that influence tax experts’ self-perceptions of the value of the facets of expertise in their daily tax work. While experience (age and career stage) gender, and sector were factors influencing tax experts’ perceptions of the value of the facets of expertise in their daily tax work, findings also suggest that levels of regulatory oversight and jurisdiction are influential in shaping tax experts’ perceptions of the value of the facets of expertise in daily tax work.