Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size

ETHICS IN TAX PRACTICE: A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF PRACTITIONER FIRM SIZE
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Introduction
The majority of tax practitioners have the preference for working with firms instead of working independently in departmental sections concerned with taxation in a firm. However, there has never been the study conducted on the direct relationship between the size of a firm and ethics involved in taxation practice (Tobin, Lavoie, and Trogolo, 2009 p.64). One argument that may surface is that the linkage between the size of a firm and ethics within the contexts of taxation is as well as equivalent the linkage between tax practitioners and other professionals in the field of accounting. An environment of ethics faced by the professionals handling taxation is indeed an area of interest since the role of a tax professional is not similar that done by an auditor. Auditors, for instance, need to be self-reliant about the handling of their clients while the professionals in the field of taxation have to stand out as advocates of their respective clients (Molero and Pujol, 2011 p.157). As a result of this advocacy function, tax professionals stands out to face cases of ambiguity when it comes to the determination of whether they have made attempts in crossing the gap or role of being an advocate for their esteemed clients and support for a given position that is not ethical (McGee, 2006 p.25). Added to the same, despite the literature in accounting that would give a suggestion of the Big Four Employees being more ethical when compared to those employees working in small firms, the variation, in this case, has not had a reflection in the media coverage of schemes involved in tax evasion.

Sizes of Firms and Ethics
An employer firm following the studies conducted in the past has the likely chances of having the influence on the ethical decision conclusions. Likewise, many practitioners in the field of taxation are employed by accounting firms that also their sizes vary (Hoffman, Raabe, Smith, Maloney and Young, 2015 p.68). At the same, it is clearly evident that the tax practitioners employed by the Big Four firms dealing with accounting have had implications in the current controversies involving schemes in tax evasion. For example, accountants employed by big firms according to some studies conducted before finding out that they are placed to behave in an ethical manner when compared to those who work in smaller firms (Kaptein, 2013 p.80). The reason behind this is because accountants who work in these smaller firms tend to apply low moral levels when reasoning unlike the accountants working in bigger firms who are more moral when reasoning (Gestwicki, 2012 p.53). About the same, bigger firms stand to lose a lot in case accountants fail to apply ethics in comparison to smaller firms. Consequently, accountants in this institution must deal with higher levels of ethical standards to avoid such huge losses.
Research Methodology
Since the issue of tax evasion is always an issue that is salient in the economy, it becomes appropriate for exploration of the size of a firm deeply that it has been done as at present (Green, 2010 p.71). Though there have some cases of explorations in the perceptions of tax practitioners on their work environment ethics, on the other hand, there has been no investigation on the size of a firm as the variable that is basic. With the objective of undertaking the exploration in these salient issues that form part of the firms’ ethical environment despite their varied sizes, the study, in this case, found it vital to evaluate on ethics and sizes of firms in a manner that is explorative (Duska, Duska, and Ragatz, 2011 p.76). In this regard, the research question adopted was; what issues are there relating to the size of a firm that has implications for the ethics in practice of taxation. Likewise, a qualitative approach was adopted to handle this research study.
With the intention of exploration of the existence of variation between the ethical approaches taken by tax practitioners in firms with different sizes, it also becomes vital to establish in the manner where the ethical approach taken by tax practitioners found through objective measurement (Doyle, Frecknall-Hughes, and Summers, 2013 p.637). Hence, for this reason, the study deployed the interview method to establish this fact from the respondents surveyed. The interviews used in the study were semi-structured types that had open-also ended types of questions and probes that assisted in eliciting the views from each of the participants. All the present participants agreed with the tape recording of the process of the interview. As a result, the narrative data or the audio tapes were then made to temporarily process data before undertaking the process of coding and analysis by use of template procedure and analysis (Alm and Torgler, 2011 p.641). During the reporting of findings, the study made use of extensive quotes collected from the interviewees for the purpose allowing the reader in hearing the voices of the persons interviewed as well as a way of enhancing the rich content of data collected.
Conclusion
The study took an exploration of the linkage between ethics and risk out of the management of tax with the focus being on the size of a firm and the implications of the same. The finding was that bigger firms have lesser problems of unethical practices from tax practitioners in comparison to smaller firms. The reason for this is due to the variation of handling taxation by these firms and weight of the same when the risk out of the same surfaces. For this reason, the smaller firms need to come up with measures that can assist them in an elimination of unethical practices among their employees in taxation or accounting departments.
Summary of Key Points
The professionals in taxation have chances of reaping some benefits by being cognizant when it comes to their perceptions of relation ethics and moral reasoning levels.
Through good workshop training on tax practitioners either working in small or big firms, they both have a chance in become moral and ethical good when it comes to taxations practices. In consequence, they will be able to avoid cases tax evasion schemes in their firm’s altogether.
Limitations in the approach adopted
The article is too lengthy and complex and to grasp within a short time since it takes time and also requires a lot of evaluation to deduce the content or information collected. For instance, an individual has to be dedicated to grasping the key points or the objectives or the information that the article conveys to the audience.
A Self-Evaluation of Difficulties In The Article
The article indeed has exhaustively analyzed the issue of ethics in practice in relevance to the scenario of the effect it has on the size of a firm. Due to this reason, may institutions and business organizations should find this information to be of value in their firms as they seek to apply it in their areas of operations.
Bibliographies
 Alm, J., and Torgler, B. (2011). Do Ethics Matter? Tax Compliance and Morality. Journal of Business Ethics, 101(4), pp.635-651.
 Doyle, E., Frecknall-Hughes, J. and Summers, B. (2013). Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(4), pp.623-641.
Duska, R., Duska, B. and Ragatz, J. (2011). Accounting ethics. 1st ed. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Gestwicki, C. (2012). Individual taxation 2013. 1st ed. [Place of publication not identified]: South-Western.
Green, R. (2010). The Ethics of Sin Taxes. Public Health Nursing, 28(1), pp.68-77.
Hoffman, W., Raabe, W., Smith, J., Maloney, D. and Young, J. (2015). Corporations, partnerships, estates & trusts 2015. 1st ed. Stamford, CT: South-Western Cengage Learning.
 Kaptein, M. (2013). Workplace morality. 1st ed. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
 McGee, R. (2006). Three Views on the Ethics of Tax Evasion. Journal of Business Ethics, 67(1), pp.15-35.
Molero, J., and Pujol, F. (2011). Walking Inside the Potential Tax Evader’s Mind: Tax Morale Does Matter. Journal of Business Ethics, 105(2), pp.151-162.
Tobin, D., Lavoie, R. and Trogolo, R. (2009). Problems in tax ethics. 1st ed. St. Paul, MN: West.