Beyond Bribery: Exploring the Intimate Interconnections Between Corruption and Tax Crimes

Abstract

This article undertakes the challenge of identifying and documenting interconnections between tax crimes and corrupt practices beyond simple bribery. Not only does this mission require a more comprehensive vision of corruption, but it also demands that the full scope of problematic tax conduct, reaching beyond currently-specified tax crimes, be embraced. This approach requires reframing issues that may historically have been perceived exclusively through one lens—for example, tax abuse—so that they may now be analyzed through a richer and more integrated frame with tax abuse and corruption combined. Of course, with this effort at both definitional and conceptual expansion comes a wide range of objections, questions, and resistance. Given the depth and complexity of the issues, this initial article cannot tackle all of them. Rather, this article, which serves as both the lead off to this symposium and as an initial foray into reconceptualizing the societally undermining behavior of political, social, and economic elites, begins a conversation from which future research should build. Accordingly, Part II explores the definitional facets of both corruption and tax crime that will ground subsequent analysis. Starting at the global level, Part III identifies patterns of tax abuse and corruption, and introduces one of their vital interconnections: their parallel structure. Part IV shifts to the domestic level, probing how tax abuse and corruption impact national governance and democracy, and introduces further interconnections: how both operate in tandem and reinforce each other. The Conclusion places this initial examination in context and offers guidance for next steps.