Part 1 - AL-Tax

Chapter 1today’s global marketplace. There is sometimes an advantage to the country thatcan adopt new practices without having to adapt their legacy practices.We begin with an interesting paper that asks to what extent tax compliance ispossible, from an ethical perspective. In ‘The Ethics of Tax Evasion: Lessons forTransitional Economies’, Irina Nasadyuk and Robert W. McGee place tax evasioninto a historical perspective, and in doing so, draw forward three importantinsights – that tax evasion is viewed as ethical under certain circumstances, thatthe question of fairness is inextricably linked to this ethic, and that human rightsabuses or corruption issues may indeed make for ethical tax evasion in the mindsof the citizenry. This paper places tax compliance into a historical and philosophicalperspective that appears quite obvious by the paper’s conclusion.In the second paper of this section on globalization, Professors Greg N. Gregoriou,Gino Vita, and Paul U. Ali discuss the dramatic rise of money laundering in theirpaper ‘Money Laundering: Every Financial Transaction Leaves a Paper Trail’. Theybegin by defining money laundering, then describe its various degrees, and concludewith the economic costs associated with laundering on national economiesand international commerce and taxation. They also discuss some efforts of countriesto cooperate to reduce the incidence of money laundering.We conclude with three responses from emerging nations. In ‘Tax Effects in theValuation of Multinational Corporations: The Brazilian Experience’, ProfessorsCésar Augusto Tibúrcio Silva, Jorge Katsumi Niyama, José Antônio de França,and Leonardo Vieira describe the experiences of Brazil on the valuation and taxationof multinational corporations. They point out that emerging nations mustdevelop new institutions to deal with these new realities given rise by globalization.In their analysis, they focus on both the multinational corporation’s experienceand on the national experience.We conclude this section and this book with a paper by Professors Alexandre B.Cunha, Alexsandro Broedel Lopes, and Arilton Teixeira, who collaborate to discussthe economics of reform in their chapter entitled ‘The Economic Impacts ofTrade Agreements and Tax Reforms in Brazil: Some Implications for AccountingResearch’. The authors use a sophisticated general equilibrium model to describethe effects of tax reform in Brazil. By developing their general equilibrium model,the authors can better describe the welfare-enhancing effects of various types ofinternationalization, such as enhanced trade with Argentina or membership in theFree Trade Area of the Americas. They take note of the daunting task to includeand reform emerging nations into a new taxation regime. They also leave us withthe important message that emerging nations must improve accounting and taxationsystems to enhance national well-being.9