The Tax Avoidance Industry: Accountancy Firms on the Make

The focus of the paper is upon the financial sector and, more specifically the involvement of global accountancy firms in devising and selling tax avoidance schemes euphemistically marketed as `tax planning?. Commenting upon some of the ?entrepreneurial? activities of these firms, Perrow (2010) observes that ?they knew what they were doing was fraudulent? (ibid: 314) as he notes that Greenwood and Suddaby?s (2006) widely referenced study excludes consideration of how partners in these firms were complicit in embracing the `alternative logics pressed upon them by their large corporate clients? (ibid: 314). An example is so-called ?alternative logics? is the construction and promotion of elaborate tax avoidance schemes by big accounting firms (Sikka and Hampton, 2005) which, we show, has become so deeply normalized within the Big Firms as to cast doubt upon their `alternative? status.