Corporate social responsibility and tax planning: Not by rules alone

Taxpayers have to plan their tax affairs to plan their life or develop their business strategy. Often tax planning is encouraged and intended by tax legislation, but sometimes it is not. By way of tax incentives the tax legislator often tries to steer citizens’ behaviour to achieve all kind of policy goals. This way the tax legislator stimulates taxpayers to adopt a calculating attitude towards the tax system, breeding a rule-based mindset focused on tax planning. This rule-focus crowds out ethics. Taxpayers turn around the rules to their advantage. The tax legislator usually reacts with refined or new rules which adds to the existing complexity of tax law. Companies endorsing corporate social responsibility accept ethical obligations beyond compliance with the law. It is argued that these companies should agree that the interpretation and use of tax rules is based on a moral choice which rules out strictly complying with the letter of the law. CSR-companies should even take one more step in endorsing the view that tax is a body of rules which itself is grounded in principles which make up the internal morality of law. Therefore, they should take these principles seriously when engaging in tax planning