May 2017

”Cooperative Compliance in Retrospect and Prospect” Workshop

On 22 May 2017, Lynne Oats (JOTA and the University of Exeter) and Lotta Björklund Larsen (Linköping University) hosted a workshop titled “Cooperative Compliance in Retrospect and Prospect” under the auspices of the FairTax project . The event took place at Broadway House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NQ. It was attended by academics and representatives of a number of tax authorities.

The Aim of the Event

The pace of change in the relationship between tax authorities and large business taxpayers has increased significantly in recent years. The spread of cooperative compliance initiatives as a framework for this relationship has been remarkable. Yet cooperative compliance is not without challenge and leads to many questions such as: 

• What exactly are the benefits? 
• How can we assess its success?

The aim of the workshop was to allow tax authorities and academics to discuss these and other questions.

The Format of the Event

Researchers from the EU-funded FairTax project presented the findings of studies of cooperative compliance arrangements in several countries. A number of other academics also presented work exploring cooperative compliance initiatives from a variety of perspectives.

This was followed by an open discussion, in which participants were invited to share their views on the success or otherwise of cooperative compliance in their countries and to speculate on the prospects for cooperative compliance in the future.

We are grateful to everyone who took the time to participate in the workshop.

The Impact of the Workshop

The workshop provided the inspiration for a special issue of the Journal of Tax Administration, which was published in May 2019. You can download this issue (5.1) from our website free of charge.