Remember the balance of forces: Immorality of international tax avoidance, corporate social activity and narrow-minded tax policymakers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to warn policymakers, by examining certain aspects of policy, possibly overlooked, against overestimating the power of corporate social responsibility (CSR) idea to inhibit tax avoidance by the multinationals.

Design/methodology/approach

By examining, with narrative and qualitative means, existing insights such as ones with regard to the inefficiency of the public sector.

Findings

Implication that the following three factors could not co-exist: promoting CSR activities, which include moral tax payment by the multinational corporations; requiring the multinationals to refrain from immorally reducing effective tax rates and keeping the current level of public utilities.

Originality/value

To sound an alarm to tax policymakers who are particularly addicted to the base erosion and profit shifting by multinational enterprises recently by this new implication mixing up with existing findings with regard to the CSR idea and cost-inefficiency character of the public sector activities.

Citation

Matsuoka, A. (2020), "Remember the balance of forces: Immorality of international tax avoidance, corporate social activity and narrow-minded tax policymakers", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 1379-1388. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-09-2019-0119