Description
The book discusses how markets in vice (like tax shelters) have grown in competition with markets in virtue (like good financial advice). Braithwaite argues that effective regulation could help turn markets in vice into markets of virtue.
This sweeping, comparative study of taxation in the United States and Australia shows that even as governments in the Western world have become increasingly sophisticated tax collectors, a competitive and ruthless market in advice on tax avoidance has developed. The same competitive forces in the late twentieth century which have driven down prices and sparked efficiencies in the production of fast food or computer parts have helped stimulate the markets for bads like tax shelters and problem gambling. Braithwaite draws the surprising conclusion that effective regulation could actually flip markets in vice to markets of virtue. Essential reading for anyone involved in policy, governance, and regulation, Markets in Vice, Markets in Virtue provides a blueprint for restoring the equity of Western tax systems and a breakthrough theory of how regulators can support markets in virtue and curtail markets in vice. Review: With characteristic style and ebullience, John Braithwaite cuts through the complexities of tax avoidance, and drawing on extensive practical knowledge offers four key strategies for flipping 'markets in vice' into 'markets in virtue'. This highly readable book will be of interest both to tax specialists and to those concerned about the effectiveness of regulation, but who never thought that tax could be interesting. In Braithwaite's hands, it is. -Julia Black, Reader in Law, London School of Economics This outstanding book draws on a wide range of interviews to offer a compelling depiction of the growth of the tax shelter industry in both Australia and the United States, and of the ways it might effectively be combatted by sophisticated regulators. It should be required reading for anybody interested in the tax shelter problem and, more broadly, the problem of how contemporary competition is creating markets in vice and how they may be turned into markets in virtue. -Professor Reuven Avi-Yonah, University of Michigan Written in John Braithwaite's engagingly direct style, this book casts a bright light on some of the arcane practices that underlie one of the most crucial issues of the 21st century: whether tax systems can continue to provide funding for public services in ways that can be accepted as fair and just. Its penetrating analyses and practical proposals should be read not only by tax advisers and officials but by every concerned citizen. -Prof. Sol Picciotto, Lancaster University Law School Professor John Braithwaite, probably Australia's most internationally renowned social scientist has written an original, sparkling, readable analysis that opens our eyes to aggressive tax avoidance behaviour in the United States and Australia, and the only partly successful regulatory attempts to deal with it. -Professor Allan Fels, AO Foundation Dean, The Australia and New Zealand School of Government
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