Tax Governance : Corporate experiences with Cooperative Compliance in Denmark

This working paper presents an analysis of the experiences of Cooperative Compliance in Denmark. Cooperative Compliance denotes a specific kind of collaborative program for the regulation of large corporate taxpayers by the tax authorities. Cooperative Compliance programs have been implemented in several countries worldwide. In Denmark the program is called Tax Governance. Tax Governance has been studied using qualitative method and the analyses of the working paper build on an extensive base of in-depth interviews – primarily with tax directors from corporations participating in the program. The working paper shows as a general stance that the corporations are supporting the ideas behind Tax Governance and are generally satisfied with their participation. However, the working paper also shows that most of them explain to be stretched between this willingness to participate and the different challenges and contradictions they told to experience in the everyday work practices related to the Tax Governance program. The working paper zooms in at these various everyday experiences from the corporations. Yet, it also zooms out and shows that the Tax Governance program in different ways relate to wider international trends within tax administration, especially concerning the development of risk assessments and internal control in the corporations and a greater focus on monitoring of these elements by the tax authorities. Overall, the working paper concludes that Tax Governance as a model for a collaborative regulatory relationship between Skat and large corporations comes with both possibilities and challenges