“On the same wavelength”: reconciling competing logics in tax client relationships

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics in the relationship between tax practitioners and their tax clients, to understand how tax practitioners reconcile competing logics in their tax work. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopts a qualitative approach in which semi-structured interviews are conducted with 68 tax practitioners across 11 countries, allowing for the examination of an in-depth personal perspective on tax practitioners’ relationships with their clients. Findings: Using a Bourdieusian frame, I find that long-term client relationships built on trust and shared values, as moderated by risk appetite and cultural markers, can enable tax practitioners to reconcile competing logics in their advisory work. Practical implications: The research findings presented reflect the way in which tax practitioners navigate, build up and maintain long-term relationships with their clients. The findings are highly relevant for regulators as my research shows that clients share a similar tax risk appetite with their tax advisor, thus this can assist regulators in curbing tax non-compliance and in identifying more tax-aggressive tax practitioners and taxpayers. Originality/value: Previous studies (Carter and Spence, 2014; Harber and Willows, 2022) have examined the tension between commercial and other professional logics among senior accountants working in Big 4 firms. I extend and deepen this work to tax practitioners, drawing on a substantial corpus of interviews to examine the role of the client relationship in explaining the heterogeneity of the field. These findings add to the understanding of client agency and to the subtleties of professional relationships within the tax domain.