OECD’s global principles and EU’s tax crime measures
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-09-2019-0118 |
| Published date | 23 June 2020 |
| Pages | 406-419 |
| Date | 23 June 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
| Author | Umut Turksen,Adam Abukari |
OECD’s global principles and EU’s
tax crime measures
Umut Turksen
Center for Financial and Corporate Integrity, Coventry University,
Coventry, UK, and
Adam Abukari
Department of Business and Law, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to investigate and providepathways for leveraging the Organisation for Economic
Cooperationand Development (OECD’s) Ten Global Principles (TGPs) for countering tax crimes int heEU.
Design/methodology/approach –The study is guided by the combinationof traditional and innovative
research methodsdrawn from criminal law and justice, publicregulatory theory and tax law, based on socio-
legal and comparativemethodologies.
Findings –The research shows that EU has achieved considerable amount of progress when it comes to
meeting the TGPs. However, law and practice in EU Member States indicate that there are different legal,
human and organisational approaches to fighting tax crimes. The TGPs could be strategically applied to
complementing the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) and other initiatives on
AdministrativeCooperation.
Research limitations/implications –Although the TGPs appear encompassing, there are
opportunities to harnessthe potency of these principles and to provide more tailored principles thatcan help
engineersustainable remedies for countering tax crimes in the EU.
Practical implications –The paper critically analyses, through a multidisciplinary approach, the main
legal, humanand organisational factors influencing the prosecutionof tax crimes in the EU Member States.
Social implications –Realignment and harmonisationof tax enforcement paractices in the EU Member
States thushelp in the reduction of tax gap resulting fromtax offences.
Originality/value –The paper provides novelapproaches and findings based on empirical info obtained
from face-to-facefocus groups with end users and law enforcement agencies in tax enforcementeco-system in
ten differentEU Member States.
Keywords European Union, Tax crimes, Countering tax crimes, Ten Global Principles (TGPs)
Paper type Research paper
1. Understanding the contours of tax crime in the European Union and
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Tax evasion, false accounting and reporting (tax fraud) are some of the broad terms of tax
offences in EU Member States (MS). Tax fraud is found in direct taxes such as income or profit
taxes and in indirect taxes such as the value-added tax (VAT) (OECD, 2018a;Bonch-
Osmolovskiy et al., 2018). While the presence and volume of tax crimes are acknowledged, and
© Umut Turksen and Adam Abukari. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is
published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce,
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JFC
28,2
406
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.28 No. 2, 2021
pp. 406-419
EmeraldPublishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-09-2019-0118
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1359-0790.htm
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