How do tax advisors make themselves comfortable with the tax planning arrangements they recommend to their clients, in the many gray areas that characterize their field of practice? What motivates tax advisors to consult each other in this context? In this field study, we examine the processes that help (re)produce an influential informal norm of peer consultation surrounding the work of tax partners in accounting firms. Based on interviews with 36 tax advisors, most of them partners in accounting firms, our analysis focuses on rationalization processes surrounding the informal consultation norm. Our findings shed light on partners' heavy reliance on this norm, to comfort themselves in exercising interpretive judgment about the meaning of tax rules. Clan monitoring and mutual support both play a significant role in the process. As such, our study illustrates how peer consultation operates as an interpretive practice socially embedded in clan processes. Partners negotiate the shared meaning of the law through clan-based interactions with their peers until a consensus is reached: the tax planning arrangement is then perceived to be robust enough and able to withstand external challenges. Overall, our analysis points to a need to step back from the current tax avoidance debate, to better understand how clan-based interpretive judgments develop and operate in practice, in their social context. We also hope to influence the discipline’s research agenda by encouraging academics to seek a better understanding of tax planning in action.

中文翻译：

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“孤独飞翔，孤独死亡”？宗族与税务专业知识的产生


在其执业领域的许多灰色地带中，税务顾问如何让自己对向客户推荐的税务规划安排感到满意？是什么促使税务顾问在这种情况下互相咨询？在这项实地研究中，我们研究了有助于（重新）产生围绕会计师事务所税务合伙人工作的有影响力的非正式同行协商规范的流程。基于对 36 名税务顾问（其中大多数是会计师事务所合伙人）的采访，我们的分析重点是围绕非正式咨询规范的合理化流程。我们的研究结果揭示了合作伙伴对这一规范的严重依赖，以在对税收规则的含义进行解释性判断时安慰自己。家族监控和相互支持在此过程中都发挥着重要作用。因此，我们的研究说明了同伴协商如何作为一种嵌入氏族过程的社会解释实践来运作。合作伙伴通过与同行进行基于家族的互动来协商法律的共同含义，直到达成共识：然后认为税收筹划安排足够稳健，能够抵御外部挑战。总体而言，我们的分析表明，有必要从当前的避税争论中退一步，更好地理解基于宗族的解释性判断如何在其社会背景下在实践中发展和运作。我们还希望通过鼓励学者更好地了解实际的税务规划来影响该学科的研究议程。