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References to "customers‟ have become commonplace in the policy discourses within UK government and other public sector bodies. It is a working assumption of UK public sector management that the concept of the "customer‟ can be applied to any public sector service agency or department; this paper analyses how the UK government‟s revenue department, formerly titled the Inland Revenue (IR), re-characterised firstly taxpayers and latterly tax claimants as "customers," rather than "users," of IR services. This paper identifies some problems, dilemmas and ambiguities associated with this reconceptualisation in the context of an organisation that is predominantly a regulating department. Far from being merely a reclassification of the taxpayer as customer, the emerging discourse and associated practices of the IR were in part embedded in organisational change including the merger with HM Customs and Excise to form the present-day HMRC. Thus, this case analysis illustrates the limits of consumerism as a strategic tool of a government revenue department and raises wider questions for public management.

This review essay suggests considerations to be addressed in research design if research on a taxation subject is to succeed as rigorous accounting research, well grounded in relevant historical scholarship. Tax research must focus on substantive subjects that are recognizable as “accounting”; the methods, approach, and exposition must be “historical” to an acceptable standard; and the research must engage with relevant portions of the existing body of accounting historical scholarship. Further, scholarly engagement with the best researchers and liveliest debates that the disciplines of accounting and history have to offer will enrich the treatment of tax in accounting history

Seven British income tax disputes over depreciation (1875–1897) are analyzed in this contextual study. The legal cases reveal how uncertainty over meanings for “depreciation,” “profits,” and “capital” reflected social and political tensions which had commercial accounting implications. Case analysis yields evidence of how judicial support reinforced the Inland Revenue's technical authority over a competing tax administration institution and enabled its modern regulatory control over taxpayers to be constructed. The British example illustrates the ways in which technical and administrative practices may emerge from the contestation of meanings that takes place both in a wide political context and within particular institutional settings.

In 1855 Jane Carlyle, wife of historian Thomas Carlyle, appeared before the General Commissioners of Income Tax to appeal against her husband's assessment. Moulded around her memoire of the appeal, this paper explores the process of and social context for mid-nineteenth century English income taxation of profits, and the associated accountings and processes of accountability. It reveals how local tax authorities employed sovereign powers as the basis for regulatory control. The paper outlines conditions of possibility for the emergence of modern Inland Revenue powers based on disciplinary technologies.

Taxation practice represents a significant part of what may be classed as accounting practice. In contrast, taxation research represents a very small part of the accounting research field. This pap...

This paper constructs a method for assessing the degree of connection between tax rules and practices and financial reporting rules and practices in a country. Five types of connection and disconnection are suggested, and 15 arenas of accounting are proposed for assessment on this basis. The method is applied to four countries, partly in order to test the claim of a clear distinction between Anglo-Saxon and continental European countries.

The relationship between accounting and taxation in the United Kingdom is explored in this article. The first section considers historical reasons for the relative independence of contemporary calculations of accounting profits and taxable profits. Despite the formal independence of important aspects of the calculation regimes, effective interdependence of practice is a feature of the United Kingdom's tax and accounting histories. The second section outlines the current law and practice governing the recognition of taxable profits, and reviews the financial reporting standards and practices that have been developed to deal with tax/accounting differences. Finally, recent developments in financial report-ing and taxation are identified that are likely to have an impact on the character of the relationship between tax and accounting in the future.