<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> This article discusses proactive public disclosure of taxpayer information and how this may form a new strategy for securing tax compliance by tax administrators. It reports a case study from the Danish Customs and Tax Administration in which consumers of services-over a short period of time-were informed about businesses’ lack of value-added tax (VAT) registration. Our approach to the case is twofold: First, the article lays out a legal analysis of the disclosure practice, and second, the article presents an organizational analysis of why the practice was initiated. The analyses show that using proactive public disclosure is compatible with the Duty of Confidentiality, but incompatible with Good Public Governance. Furthermore, the analyses show that there are a number of strong organizational rationales for using proactive public disclosure, despite its apparent incompatibility with Good Public Governance. The article is innovative in that it combines a legal and organizational approach to analyse a new regulatory strategy within tax administration.</p></abstract>

This article discusses proactive public disclosure of taxpayer information and how this may form a new strategy for securing tax compliance by tax administrators. It reports a case study from the Danish Customs and Tax Administration in which consumers of services-over a short period of time-were informed about businesses’ lack of value-added tax (VAT) registration. Our approach to the case is twofold: First, the article lays out a legal analysis of the disclosure practice, and second, the article presents an organizational analysis of why the practice was initiated. The analyses show that using proactive public disclosure is compatible with the Duty of Confidentiality, but incompatible with Good Public Governance. Furthermore, the analyses show that there are a number of strong organizational rationales for using proactive public disclosure, despite its apparent incompatibility with Good Public Governance. The article is innovative in that it combines a legal and organizational approach to analyse a new regulatory strategy within tax administration.

Proactive Public Disclosure: A new regulatory strategy for creating tax compliance?

Associate Professor, PhD, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School

Associate Professor, PhD, Law Department, Copenhagen Business School

Nordic Tax Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This article discusses proactive public disclosure of taxpayer information and how this may form a new strategy for securing tax compliance by tax...

Proactive Public Disclosure: A new regulatory strategy for creating tax compliance?

Published Online: Apr 20, 2016

Page range: 36 - 46

Received: Aug 07, 2015

Accepted: Nov 10, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ntaxj-2015-0009

Keywords
Public disclosure, tax administration, public law, organization, tax compliance

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Proactive Public Disclosure: A new regulatory strategy for creating tax compliance?

Published Online: Apr 20, 2016

Page range: 36 - 46

Received: Aug 07, 2015

Accepted: Nov 10, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ntaxj-2015-0009

KeywordsPublic disclosure, tax administration, public law, organization, tax compliance

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Public disclosure, tax administration, public law, organization, tax compliance