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International Handbook on Clinical Tax Education: Chapter 18 A research roadmap for tax clinics

International Handbook on Clinical Tax Education
Chapter 18 A research roadmap for tax clinics
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table of contents
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. List of figures
  5. List of tables
  6. List of appendices
  7. List of abbreviations
  8. Foreword
  9. 1. Introduction
  10. Part I. The tax clinic
    1. 2. A brief history of tax clinics around the globe
      1. 2.1 Key findings
      2. 2.2 Introduction
      3. 2.3 From humble beginnings
      4. 2.4 From east to west
      5. 2.5 From south to north
      6. 2.6 Conclusion
    2. 3. Project administration: how to set up a tax clinic
      1. 3.1 Key findings
      2. 3.2 Introduction
      3. 3.3 The foundations of a clinic
        1. Institutional and/or organisational support
        2. Costs and wider resources
        3. Supervision
        4. Insurance
        5. Data protection
      4. 3.4 Clinic design
        1. Student and supervisor recruitment
        2. Educational design
        3. Integration into community (client recruitment)
      5. 3.5 Concluding remarks
      6. 3.6 Key reading
    3. 4. Rationale: tax support for low-income individuals
      1. 4.1 Key findings
      2. 4.2 Introduction
      3. 4.3 Historical context
      4. 4.4 The tax charities – what they really do
        1. TaxAid
        2. Tax Help for Older People
        3. Tax clinics
      5. 4.5 The tax charities moving forward
      6. 4.6 Access to the tax charities
      7. 4.7 A rationale for low-income taxpayer support: common tax issues faced by those on a low income
        1. Non-tax issues
        2. Tax complexity
        3. Expansion of self-employment
        4. COVID-19
        5. Late registration and tax returns
        6. Other changes in how people are paid
        7. Incorrect PAYE codes
        8. Pension drawdown
        9. Proliferation of umbrella companies and disguised remuneration schemes
        10. Penalties
        11. Bankruptcy
        12. Digital exemption and assisted digital
        13. Working with HMRC to resolve generic tax issues
      8. 4.8 An international call to action
      9. 4.9 Concluding remarks
    4. 5. Rationale: tax and the poverty interface
      1. 5.1 Key findings
      2. 5.2 Introduction
      3. 5.3 Canvassing the tax and wider social issues addressed by the National Tax Clinic Program
        1. Tax and financial literacy
        2. The unmet need for tax advice in Australia
      4. 5.4 Introducing the UNSW Tax and Business Advisory Clinic
      5. 5.5 Benefit of tax clinics: Australia and internationally
        1. Opportunities for further research
      6. 5.6 Concluding remarks
  11. Part II. Tax clinics and our communities
    1. 6. Engagement in the community
      1. 6.1 Key findings
      2. 6.2 Introduction
      3. 6.3 The external stakeholders in CTE
        1. Supporting your local community
        2. Becoming part of the local community
      4. 6.4 Concluding remarks
    2. 7. Listening to our communities: the Community Tax Law Project as an example of a low-income taxpayer community-focused service provider
      1. 7.1 Key findings
      2. 7.2 Introduction
      3. 7.3 What does a community-focused tax clinic look like?
        1. Mission driven
        2. Community understanding and support
      4. 7.4 What populations are you going to serve?
        1. Demographic scope: how do your clients live, work, pray or play?
        2. Resources and limitations
        3. Learn from failures
      5. 7.4 What do these populations need or want?
      6. 7.5 What specifically does your clinic require to meet these needs and wants?
        1. Community partners: you cannot reach everyone by yourself
        2. Social capital: the who, what and when of building your clinic family
        3. Finances: the lights do not stay on with positive thoughts and well wishes
      7. 7.6 How do I fix the problem at the source? Yelling up the chain: advocacy as part of the clinic’s mission?
        1. Community advocacy
        2. Administrative advocacy
        3. Litigation as a venue for change
        4. Governmental advocacy
      8. 7.7 Conclusion
    3. 8. Public education: the Tax Club UNILAG
      1. 8.1 Key findings
      2. 8.2 The context of the Tax Club UNILAG
      3. 8.3 The creation of Tax Club UNILAG
      4. 8.4 An overview of the club’s activities
      5. 8.5 The importance of tax clubs
      6. 8.6 Some challenges faced by the tax club
      7. 8.7 Support for the use of tax clubs in education
      8. 8.8 Looking to the future
      9. 8.9 Concluding remarks
    4. 9. Public education: engaging with secondary education in schools
      1. 9.1 Key findings
      2. 9.2 Introduction
      3. 9.3 Tax clinics as defenders of taxpayer rights
      4. 9.4 Partnering with secondary education
        1. How the partnership was established
        2. Benefits of the community partnership
      5. 9.5 Conclusion
    5. 10. Taxpayer resolution: improving taxpayer compliance in Indonesia
      1. 10.1 Key findings
      2. 10.2 Introduction
      3. 10.3 Taxation in Indonesia in a nutshell
        1. Registration
        2. Bookkeeping
        3. Payment
        4. Reporting
        5. Audits and penalties
      4. 10.4 Revenue and taxpayer compliance
      5. 10.5 Improving individual taxpayer compliance
        1. The formation of the FoT community
        2. The development of FoT
      6. 10.6 Conclusion
    6. 11. Policy changes: impact on and through the Tax Court
      1. 11.1 Key findings
      2. 11.2 Introduction
      3. 11.3 Government approach
        1. Regulations and other rules
      4. 11.4 Role of tax clinics in shaping the law
        1. Litigation: impact of clinics on the community of low-income taxpayers
        2. Commenting on proposed legislation, regulations, forms and rules
        3. Commenting on systemic problems at the IRS
      5. 11.5 Conclusion
    7. 12. Marginalised voices: tax and the criminal justice system
      1. 12.1 Key findings
      2. 12.2 Introduction
      3. 12.3 Making Tax Digital
      4. 12.4 Digital exclusion
      5. 12.5 Tax issues – people in prison
        1. Digital exclusion – people in prison
        2. People in prison/with previous lived experience of prison as clinic clients
        3. Prison and self-employment
        4. Tax and self-employment
      6. 12.6 Student and university benefits
      7. 12.7 Conclusion
  12. Part III. Tax clinics and our students
    1. 13. Pedagogical theory and clinical tax education
      1. 13.1 Key findings
      2. 13.2 Introduction
      3. 13.3 Fostering the next generation of tax advisers: the importance of pro bono
      4. 13.4 Relevant pedagogical theories
        1. Employability from tax clinics: work-integrated learning (WIL)
        2. Growing student motivation and confidence: self-determination theory (SDT)
      5. 13.5 Concluding remarks
      6. 13.6 Key reading
    2. 14. Enhancing student experience: shadowing, role-plays and reflection
      1. 14.1 Key findings
      2. 14.2 Introduction: pedagogical rationale
      3. 14.3 Initial collaboration
      4. 14.4 Implementation
        1. Student recruitment
        2. EOI, CV and job interview
        3. Participation and presentation
      5. 14.5 From theory to practice
        1. Shadowing
        2. Team-based approach
        3. Role-plays
        4. Reflection and report writing
        5. Career readiness
        6. COVID-19 and the impact on the student experience
      6. 14.6 Conclusion
    3. 15. Introducing tax advocacy to students
      1. 15.1 Key findings
      2. 15.2 Introduction
      3. 15.3 The structure of a clinic course
        1. The seminar component
        2. The client representation component
      4. 15.4 Major design choices within the clinic model
        1. The directive–nondirective continuum
        2. Level of student responsibility for cases
        3. Use of examples and templates
        4. Case supervision
        5. Tension between client service and student educational development
      5. 15.5 Developing a reflective practice
        1. Exercising agency over one’s professional development
        2. Building the habit of reflection
      6. 15.6 Skills and direct advocacy experience
        1. Law firm management
        2. Ethics
        3. Multicultural lawyering
        4. Legal skills
          1. 1. Interviewing
          2. 2. Fact and legal investigation
          3. 3. Client advice and communication
          4. 4. Document drafting
        5. The advocacy mind-set
      7. 15.7 Working with community members
      8. 15.8 Conclusion
    4. 16. Developing employability skills through practice-based learning
      1. 16.1 Key findings
      2. 16.2 Introduction
      3. 16.3 Rationale for the TAC at UEL
        1. To raise awareness and provide free guidance in response to the COVID-19 lockdown
        2. To support employability of our accounting and finance students
      4. 16.4 Relevant literature
        1. Voluntary services: student, faculty and practitioner participation
        2. Pro bono: the participation of experienced practitioners
      5. 16.5 Clinic design
        1. Student volunteers
        2. Practice-led teaching
        3. External impact, collaborations and partnerships
        4. Student experience
        5. The challenges of tax and accounting clinics
      6. 16.6 Data and methodology
      7. 16.7 Results and discussion
        1. Tax and accountancy clinic and employability skills development
        2. The impact of COVID-19 on student TAC experience
        3. The measurement of students’ satisfaction: quality of the TAC training
      8. 16.8 Concluding remarks
    5. 17. Students’ professional identity and a fully online tax clinic
      1. 17.1 Key findings
      2. 17.2 Introduction
      3. 17.3 The Griffith Tax Clinic
        1. Face-to-face
        2. Online
      4. 17.4 Research methodology
        1. Participants
      5. 17.5 Data results
        1. Overall
        2. Nationality
        3. PWE (Professional Work Experience)
        4. Limitations of research and future research
      6. 17.6 Concluding remarks
  13. Part IV. Moving forwards
    1. 18. A research roadmap for tax clinics
      1. 18.1 Key findings
      2. 18.2 Introduction
      3. 18.3 Developing the tax clinic as a research project
      4. 18.4 Mapping the research field
      5. 18.5 Research methods
      6. 18.6 Theoretical perspectives
      7. 18.7 Concluding remarks
    2. 19. Moving forwards: tax clinics and business schools
      1. 19.1 Key findings
      2. 19.2 Introduction: the civic university
      3. 19.3 Widening participation
      4. 19.4 The challenge of professional accreditation
      5. 19.5 Practical experience
      6. 19.6 Some ideas for clinics going forwards
        1. Replacing High Volume Agents (HVAs)
        2. Child Trust Funds
        3. Cryptocurrencies
      7. 19.7 Policy clinics
        1. Desk research for the Office of Tax Simplification
        2. Educating policy makers
        3. Drawing on students’ experiences of the tax system
      8. 22.8 Concluding remarks
    3. 20. Concluding remarks
  14. Index

Chapter 18 A research roadmap for tax clinics

Emer Mulligan and Margaret O’Neill*

18.1 Key findings

Tax clinics (and clinical tax education more broadly) are also research environments; they provide lots of opportunities to conduct original research. For example, such research can provide pedagogical insights into a nontraditional learning environment, as well as a unique insight into how a tax system affects its taxpayers. For clinics that provide advice to low-income taxpayers, research provides insight into the voices and experiences of more marginalised groups, where research is less common. A research project on tax clinics needs to be carefully considered and designed; consider the research questions you wish to engage with, the appropriate methods to explore those questions, and theoretical frameworks.

18.2 Introduction

In this chapter, we highlight the benefits of a shared roadmap to inspire research and measure impacts, as the tax clinic initiative expands globally. To this end we map out possible methods of research and evaluation. Tax clinics, in which tax students work, sometimes supported by locally based tax practitioners, to provide tax support in their local regions, on a voluntary basis, are a relatively recent phenomenon internationally. While law-school tax clinics have existed in the US since the 1970s, developing beyond academic institutions in the early 1990s as low-income taxpayer clinics (LITCs) and continuing to grow,1 we have seen recent uptake in this initiative across the globe, including Australia’s National Tax Clinic programme and similar initiatives in South Africa, Ireland and the United Kingdom.2

For the most part, these tax clinics provide pro bono representation and assistance navigating the tax system for those unrepresented individuals, small businesses, nonprofit organisations, or charities who do not have access to tax practitioners or are unaware of their tax rights and obligations. They represent a bridge between communities and tax systems, and they create a space for student experience and learning, putting theory into practice under the supervision of tax professionals. Tax clinics provide possibilities for research into tax pedagogy, tax policy, the social contract, volunteerism, access to tax justice, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and more.3 Multiple stakeholder perspectives can be taken into account whereby the views and experiences of clients, students, tax professionals and firms, administrators and academic staff, can all potentially inform the tax clinic as a research project.

Tax clinics already up and running provide a fertile research terrain to explore these interconnected aspects of the service, with several key lines of enquiry already established. This chapter explores the question of how the synergies between student learning, client experience, practitioner role, project planning, community outreach, state connections and citizenship requirements can be meaningfully linked, when we conceptualise the tax clinic as a research project.

Further, this chapter seeks to create a research roadmap demonstrating how tax clinics open out avenues of enquiry, offering suggestions on the prospective for future research as they continue to burgeon and develop. The chapter refers to the Tax Clinic in the University of Galway, Ireland, and the research avenues evolving out of this clinic as a touchstone throughout this exploration. It considers the theoretical and practical issues involved in how to implement the research element of the tax clinic. It introduces possibilities for pedagogical frameworks, qualitative and quantitative methods, and theoretical approaches that can productively be applied to guide and enhance the research. Nowhere is it proposing to be prescriptive or exhaustive, but instead to open out research agendas to these rich possibilities.

The aim of this chapter is to provide a roadmap to identify the impact of tax clinic research, support international and interdisciplinary collaborations and comparisons, and support research surrounding applied learning and community outreach which applies to and transcends taxation.

18.3 Developing the tax clinic as a research project

The research context of the University of Galway Tax Clinic represents a touchstone within this roadmap. Currently in its third year, the clinic involves students of taxation offering one-to-one consultations, under the guidance of tax experts, for university students and marginalised citizens in the region. Our clinic was set up with the goal of aiding and informing individuals who otherwise would not have access to such taxation supports. The objective of developing the clinic as a research project followed, as questions and ideas emerged through our experiences and through conversations with colleagues setting up and running clinics across the globe.

A research project would enhance opportunities, for instance, to gain real insight into the experiences of our clients, to evaluate the clinic in terms of outcomes and scalability, to develop collaborations, to contribute to tax policy and administration, and ultimately to also inform subsequent development of the clinic. These conversations and reflections led to the tax clinic research roadmap. We are currently exploring the question of how to link the synergies between student learning and community outreach as two of our fundamental goals, as well as how to account for the experiences of our clients and tax professionals.

We are also conscious of the research potential in our daily operations, as connected with all the other facets of the clinic. Data collected from the first rollout of the clinic to the student body shows that although taxpayers are motivated to be compliant with their taxes, student taxpayers often struggle to understand the tax system.4 Our current more elaborate research project on the clinic is entitled ‘Enabling Tax Compliance Through a Work-Integrated Learning Initiative: Understanding and Building on the Case of University of Galway’s Tax Clinic’.

This project draws on the tax clinic experience to ask what the State is doing to support taxpayers, how do individuals understand their roles and responsibilities surrounding taxation compliance, and how can a ground-up approach involving work-integrated learning (WIL) enable and enhance citizenship. Having formulated a set of questions, mindful that they may evolve, we are now considering how to address these issues accurately and insightfully, for example, how do we measure the students’ or clients’ change in knowledge, or develop a conceptual or theoretical framework to assist our interpretation? This chapter works through these research components to share our findings about valuable approaches, frameworks and tools. The variety of approaches presented here are offered as a useful roadmap for a continued discussion aimed at drawing together findings from tax clinic colleagues grappling with connected questions.

It is possible to feel pulled (in a good way) in different directions by opportunities arising from the tax clinic. We have found that while each direction represents new opportunities for client populations, research discoveries and funding, it is important that the different facets of the clinic remain interconnected around a central mission, which also informs a clear research identity and trajectory.

For the tax clinic researcher, your broad area of enquiry – for us, education, citizenship and tax compliance – along with your philosophical perspective, in other words, the beliefs you bring about what can be known and how it can be known, will inform your research design and interpretive framework.5

We have met several times as a research team to consider our underlying philosophy, which arising out of transdisciplinary backgrounds will potentially be informed by symbolic interactionism. This is an approach which, without underestimating individual agency, considers how shared meanings, ‘from macrolevel power structures to microlevel daily interactions, all are created through social interactions at various levels’ (for instance in the classroom or clinic).6 Moreover, that these meanings, developed through previous experiences, may evolve because of new interactions.

We are therefore likely to favour qualitative approaches and social theories, such as Bourdieu’s work on how social structures can inform subjective meanings as well as objective consequences.7 Or, alternatively, affect theories such as those of Sara Ahmed or Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick that consider emotions, such as happiness or shame, as culturally informed and reproduced through social arrangements to inform our actions. Such theories bridge macro and microstructures in a way that demonstrates the significance of individual interactions in producing meaning, as well as the logic of institutions that enable certain types of behaviour.

Interestingly, elucidating our vision and research agenda also brought focus to the operationalisation of the clinic. While we are excited by the opportunities arising as we develop the clinic as an offering for the public good, to improve the outcomes for marginalised and vulnerable populations in the region, we share a caution about the strains that civic society partners may be under, and the need to build flexibility into the project timeline. We also stress the importance of liaising with stakeholders, including individuals with lived experience, on the complex needs of different client populations.

Consideration of accessibility and inclusivity, particularly in the context of COVID-19, is also vital. Moving the clinic online worked well for the student clients, but we will also hold face-to-face clinics in the future. In connection with our goal of empowering students through real world experience, we are also examining the work-based learning environment, to ask: How do we balance training and experience? Is a research-led teaching module or a voluntary approach the way forward? How do we nurture the public service values that will support the pro bono culture that underpins the clinic? The tax clinic is an exciting, engaging and fruitful project, now being equally matched by a research journey in terms of excitement, engagement and valuable possibilities and outcomes.

18.4 Mapping the research field

It is timely to take stock of our knowledge about tax clinics, as they inform and are informed by student learning, client experience, practitioner role, project planning, community outreach and the relationship between states and citizens. This book is one such contribution to our knowledge on clinical tax education.

Tax clinic-based research contributes to literature demonstrating the benefits of WIL, bringing together theory and practice for students to develop their experiences and skills in industry or community settings. In Australia, the Clinical Tax Education Project (CTEP) ‘recognised work-integrated learning as the appropriate pedagogical strategy to respond to the evolving demands placed on Australian tax and legal education as a result of the emerging needs of industry’, with empirical research underway.8

Future research on experiential learning and tax clinics can contribute to questions of formal credits versus volunteerism (intracurricular or extracurricular clinical education) when it comes to embedding the student adviser experience in the curriculum, as this dilemma informs teaching and learning, and how students engage with clinical opportunities, civic responsibility or the ethical value of the work. Such research could explore the relationships between higher education and the tax profession, between universities and community organisations, and between students and pro bono tax professionals and mentors (as well as the changing perspectives of these stakeholders over time). As Lawton and Massey demonstrate, the mentoring relationship can be synergetic: ‘For more junior tax professionals, the clinic provides a safe environment to work on leadership and management skills … professionals will also be exposed to new technical tax experience: tax in the low-income context’.9

Research could also consider how to improve tax literacy in the general community, as well as who is using online information and what is its value.10 Connectedly, comparison and contrast of the efficiencies and impact of face-to-face versus online consultations could also inform the research agenda.

Pedagogical frameworks are discussed in more detail in Chapter 13 and provide the basis for lots of pedagogical research. When a clinic was transferred online during COVID-19, Freudenberg and Belle Isle find that students’ development of self-efficacy was relatively restricted and note that additional resources may be needed to enhance online WIL experiences.11 The challenges of running the clinic out of a university as opposed to working with a key existing community stakeholder will also benefit from exploration. Additionally, it will be valuable to consider the potential for students to learn from participation in the clinic as a research project through innovative pedagogy embedding research-based education in the curriculum.

In tax clinic research, consideration of stakeholder benefits will often bring us to issues of social citizenship and social justice. Early clinical programmes were built on a humanitarian ideal. They began in the US in the 1970s as part of an academic movement as well as a social movement to provide services to vulnerable members of the community.12 Social justice issues such as reducing poverty and hunger, improving housing and healthcare access, and combating racial discrimination, are intertwined with the tax system.13 Access to justice can refer to justice carried out through the law, or to the advancement of social causes.14 As Castelyn, Bruce and Morgan argue: ‘Facilitating access to free and reliable tax advice, thereby supporting unrepresented taxpayers, embodies the ambulatory nature of justice’.15 The question of how the notion of value is quantified relates to access to justice. As Morgan demonstrates, investment by staff and volunteers, debt corrected or written off, and pro bono hours all contribute value – further research is needed in this area.16 Future studies might also explore the views and experiences of different client populations, marginalised in different ways. There is a growing interest in the medical and social sciences in engaging with research development processes that incorporate the participation of clients, especially marginalised and vulnerable populations.17

In a comparative analysis of pro bono tax clinic experiences of Australia, the US, the UK and Canada, Kayis-Kumar et al. developed a novel evidence-based evaluation framework entitled the Tax Clinics Program Logic for an Australian university-based pro bono tax clinic programme.18 Centrally, they identify the benefit of tax clinics as ‘creating a more socially just tax system’,19 demonstrating research opportunities across stakeholder groups including clients, students, tax professionals, society and the revenue collection body. Activities that create measure for improvement and can have broader social, civic and professional impact include advice, representation, education and advocacy. Outputs include the number of clients receiving advice, the number of outstanding income tax returns completed, the amount taxpayers have saved, and the number of educational seminars offered.

The framework guides research with reference to anticipated short-, medium- and long-term measurable outcomes involving changes in, for instance, attitudes or conditions. They note that as the model moves away from measuring short-term outcomes, it will become more difficult to ascribe changes specifically to the tax clinics. Therefore, they focus on contribution – the influence of the clinic as one of many possible factors – rather than direct attribution, to understand the social impact of the tax clinics. The model can involve various methods of data collection from different stakeholders and ‘focuses on techniques such as propensity matching and the triangulation of information from multiple data sources from multiple parties rather than determining cause and effect’.20

The tax clinic setting lends itself to interdisciplinary research and international exchange. Those working in tax clinics may come from different disciplinary backgrounds. Tax can interact with law, economics, politics, psychology, history, accountancy, education, social policy, anthropology and more. Researchers from different fields may take different approaches, and interdisciplinary perspectives, adopting the perspectives and approaches of more than one discipline, can enrich research.21 International comparative studies can provide insights into the cultural contexts of tax. International clinical exchange, shared resources and research collaboration will be increasingly possible in a virtual environment.22

It will also be valuable to consider interprofessional collaborative practice, for example, tax clinics and the financial counselling profession.23 This consideration brings us back to tax justice for marginalised and financially vulnerable individuals, and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Tax clinics could engage in research projects with law clinics, disability clinics, human rights clinics and business clinics.

Research can also involve collaborators from nongovernmental organisations, community services, and other agencies and institutions. An example is where tax clinics are offered in prisons. This can be seen in several US law schools (and discussed in Chapter 12), so that prisoners can access information about business and other taxation issues: ‘Interdisciplinary prison research is a key strength at the University of Central Lancashire, including demonstrable strong links with local criminal justice agencies and institutions, including prisons, and a strong record of conducting research in prison settings and working with a range of professionals in consultative roles’.24

A research agenda should consider the research communities you wish to connect with and why, and how to create and maintain collaborative ties. We will now turn to considering shared processes we might engage as we measure and explore different questions and issues emerging from tax clinics.

18.5 Research methods

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the research method design needs to be suitable for exploring the research question posed and will be guided by the team’s philosophy about knowledge creation. Determining whose (stakeholder) perspectives the research will explore, and what it seeks to understand, will guide the data gathering process. For example, given that the University of Galway Tax Clinic seeks to explore how it can enable active citizenship, the collection of client and adviser feedback was important from the outset.

Tax clinic researchers might undertake quantitative or qualitative measures or a mix of both, to understand performance and to go into the individual realities and social practices that lie beneath. This roadmap now describes a non-exhaustive selection of methods of data collection. It embraces the research possibilities available through interdisciplinary methods and, in the next section, we explore critical and theoretical perspectives from other disciplines as potential conceptual underpinnings which can strengthen our understanding of findings.

It can be beneficial to creatively develop an approach by selecting and integrating philosophy (the perspective on knowledge creation), methodology (the broad strategy to create knowledge, for instance by building a hypothesis or creating a theoretical framework), and methods (the techniques of data collection to operationalise the choices made).25

Several forms of data collection can be used for quantitative or qualitative methodological approaches. Traditionally, surveys measure individuals’ attitudes quantitatively.26 However, whether these responses truly indicate how they would behave is not straightforward, and a variety of circumstances including capability and the attitudes of others can inform subsequent behaviour.27 Their value could be maximised, for example through increasing the specificity of measures for the behaviour under exploration, using scales to measure attitudes, or accounting for peoples’ tendencies to present themselves in a socially desirable way.28

Connectedly, a survey can be applied qualitatively to explore a phenomenon, as much as to describe it quantitatively. As McKerchar describes:

[a] survey can potentially allow a qualitative researcher to ‘explore’ the research problem in different and possibly larger contexts […]. The open-ended questions can generate new and at times unexpected responses that can lead to areas for further fruitful research. That is, a survey can provide insights to a qualitative researcher, but they will interpret the data from a different stance than will the quantitative researcher.29

In mixed methods research, quantitative data drawn from a survey or administrative data, for example, may demonstrate relationships that could then be further explored by qualitative research.30 For example, in depth interviews can provide a source of rich data for a deeper understanding of the social reality of participants’ worlds.31 Focus groups, as they encourage discussion about beliefs and experiences, also provide insights for the researcher. Likewise, quantitative data can contribute to qualitative research, for instance applying a quantitative analysis technique such as content analysis to offer systematic quantifying of data, which can be productive in identifying patterns for analysis.32

As with data collection, analysis will also follow on from the underlying concepts informing research. The process of coding, or classifying, the data to derive meaning can be undertaken manually or with use of a programme. The meanings and themes derived from the data will depend on the techniques used in the research study, meaning that the choice of methods and analysis is important.

Potential approaches in qualitative research, such as ethnography (focusing on individuals’ stories in the context of their shared setting or culture), grounded theory (focusing on the process or action that the theory is intended to explain), and narrative analysis (focusing on the stories told), provide for understanding lived experience.33 A thematic approach in qualitative analysis focuses on examining patterns of meaning. In an example of thematic analysis in tax research, Onu and Oats analyse comments from online forum discussions about tax obligations, revealing differences between assumptions that underpin the literature about tax behaviour, and naturally occurring discussions about tax, demonstrating areas for new research.34

Approaches can be deductive or inductive, applying codes developed from theory or concepts in the secondary literature, or codes developed from the research participants’ own words, respectively.35 These approaches are drawn from anthropology, sociology and interdisciplinary fields. ‘An advantage of using ethnography to study tax compliance’, Boll explains, ‘is that such a study opens up the possibility of analysing the practicalities, artefacts, exciting small details and expressions that are part of tax compliance as it is played out on a daily basis in businesses’.36

A case study research approach (where a case is taken to illustrate an issue), can demonstrate revealing insights both quantitative and qualitative.37 This approach has much to offer our understanding of tax clinics, from their operations to their contextual, comparative differences. It can also help to generate hypotheses: ‘There are opportunities to obtain rich, detailed, context-specific information in respect of complex issues, to help to understand the case and also go beyond pure description and to test, support, add to or generate theories that are generally relevant, beyond the case being researched.’38

Onu and Oats, looking to the future, emphasise the opportunities of doing research online.39 This is now especially relevant since the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant working from home arrangements (for tax professionals offering their services to tax clinics, and low paid workers availing of the clinic services who may also be working from home).

Online tax clinic services also mean the service can be offered to citizens residing outside the immediate geographical region. Public health guidance and the necessity of adopting new forms of communication have had a profound impact on the manner in which our interactions occur and shared meanings arise. Future research to assess their use will benefit all these exploratory methods in tax research.

18.6 Theoretical perspectives

We have moved from mapping the research field, identifying various potential problems and related research questions, to research methodology including philosophical perspectives, data collection and data analysis. This section addresses interpretation.

Theoretical frameworks inform an approach to interpreting data, thereby providing insights on, inter alia, the causes or effects of phenomena observed. They can be fruitful when reflecting on the tax clinic, particularly as its communal nature often leads to considering tax phenomena contextually as both institutional and social. As Boden et al. argue: ‘Tax is an organizational, institutional, social and cultural phenomenon that raises important questions around its power effects in society more widely, yet these remain concealed behind a technical façade’.40 This is a consideration that can productively be brought to tax clinic research.

The selection of theoretical perspectives discussed here is not exhaustive, rather they are offered as examples of how theories might frame tax-clinic research and enhance our understanding of what is happening.

Researchers might delve into any theories or combine them as part of creating a conceptual model to explore the issues being examined. When adopting theories, they should be considered from an early stage to help design the research and guide data collection. Depending on the research agenda, tax clinics can draw on, for example, Actor Network Theory, deriving from the sociology of science and technology, to consider how tax practices are enacted, shaped and changed in specific contexts.41 Institutional theory, alternatively, aligned with sociology and organisational studies, considers institutions as informed by social expectation, predicting interactions and behaviour, and privileging certain forms of knowledge.42

Researchers might apply social theories that can be used to think fruitfully about tax as embedded in social structures that may constrain or enable participation.43 For example, theories on gender, disability, race and age, informed by the social sciences, the humanities, perspectives in gerontology and more, can provide for considering issues of bias and inclusion, the wider environment, and the process of participation and empowerment. Social gerontology can allow for special consideration of issues of taxation and associated considerations for older citizens. Such explorations might be considered alongside theories of citizenship and tax as an institution associated with such, to explore issues of equality and the rights and responsibilities each citizen holds as a member of a community, as their status in the tax system enables individuals to pursue their goals.

18.7 Concluding remarks

This research roadmap has demonstrated the importance of defining the tax clinic’s research goals from the outset, mapping the research potential, possibilities and strategies to achieve these goals. Centrally, it emphasises that tax clinics will benefit from approaching the initiative as a fertile research ground. It is however critical that in our research orientation, we do not lose sight of core values and objectives underpinning the clinics, such as assisting marginalised citizens.

As an active and constructive process, the tax clinic as a research project can illuminate how the values informing the initiative are realised and experienced, and how pedagogy and professional activity can be enhanced. Drawing on the research roadmap provided here, we suggest tax clinic research programmes may be interpreted and applied within the context of a global community of tax clinics, leading to shared outcomes productive for decision-making and policy-setting across the globe.

In addition, and of particular importance to the academic community, the impact of tax clinic research can transcend the applied tax clinic contribution to impact on, for example, publications and academic and practitioner conferences in clinical tax education, tax policy and administration and more.

The valuable role of research in the development of the clinic can also provide approaches to cope with current and future social changes and challenges. Finally, although beyond the scope of this chapter, it is important to consider funding opportunities for research on tax clinics, and research on many and varied tax related topics, which could draw on data from tax clinics in action.

Such research could and indeed arguably should in many cases be carried out in collaboration with different stakeholders, such as tax administrations, professional tax advisers and civil society partners such as NGOs and community groups, as well as service users, across different social and cultural contexts and countries. Adopting a partnership and social inclusion approach to research in this context will serve to enhance the future design, operation and success of tax clinics worldwide for the public good.

  1. *   Emer Mulligan, Professor in Taxation and Finance & Tax Clinic Director, University of Galway; Margaret O’Neill, Tax Clinic Coordinator, University of Galway.

  2. 1   Keith Fogg, ‘Taxation with Representation: The Creation and Development of Low-Income Taxpayer Clinics’, The Tax Lawyer 67, no. 1 (2013): 3.

  3. 2   Australian Taxation Office, ‘National Tax Clinic program’, <www.ato.gov.au/General/Gen/National-Tax-Clinic-program/> accessed 2 September 2022; see also Chapter 2.

  4. 3   For more on the SDGs, <https://sdgs.un.org/goals> accessed 2 September 2022.

  5. 4   Emer Mulligan and Margaret O’Neill, ‘Here Are the 5 Most Popular Queries about Paying Tax in Ireland’ (RTE Brainstorm, 19 July 2021), <www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0715/1235280-ireland-tax-queries-clinic-credits-allowances-pup/> accessed 2 January 2022.

  6. 5   For more on the philosophical underpinnings of taxation research see Lynne Oats, ‘On Methods and Methodology’, in Lynne Oats (ed.), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012).

  7. 6   Renée Spencer, Julia M. Pryce and Jill Walsh, ‘Philosophical Approaches to Qualitative Research’, in P. Leavy (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research (Oxford University Press, 2014), 86.

  8. 7   Michael J. Carter and Celene Fuller, ‘Symbolic Interactionism’, Sociopedia.isa 1, no. 1 (2015): 1, available at <www.academia.edu/16545413/Symbolic_Interactionism> accessed 2 September 2022.

  9. 8   Donovan Castelyn, Stephanie Bruce and Annette Morgan, ‘2019 National Tax Clinic Project: Curtin University – Curtin Tax Clinic’, Journal of Australian Taxation 22, no. 2 (2021): 1.

  10. 9   Amy Lawton and David Massey, ‘Opening Our Doors’ (October 2020) Tax Adviser, <www.taxadvisermagazine.com/article/opening-our-doors> accessed 6 December 2021.

  11. 10   Sunita Jogarajan, Kate Fischer-Doherty and Julian Panetta, ‘National Tax Clinic: Melbourne Law School Tax Clinic’, Journal of Australian Taxation 22, no. 2 (2019): 27.

  12. 11   Brett Freudenberg and Melissa Belle Isle. ‘Confidence in a Pandemic: Students’ Self-efficacy When Volunteering in an Online Tax Clinic’, New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy 27, no. 4 (2021): 279; see also Chapter 17.

  13. 12   Fogg, ‘Taxation with Representation’, 5.

  14. 13   Edward W. Afield, ‘Social Justice and the Low-Income Taxpayer’, Villanova Law Review 64 (2019): 347.

  15. 14   Castelyn, Bruce and Morgan, ‘2019 National Tax Clinic Project’.

  16. 15   Castelyn, Bruce and Morgan, ‘2019 National Tax Clinic Project’, 8.

  17. 16   Annette Morgan (LinkedIn, February 2020), <www.linkedin.com/posts/annette-morgan-30564913b_the-australasian-tax-teachers-association-activity-6627410588098273280-lUdi> accessed 6 December 2021.

  18. 17   Christine FitzGerald and Kieran Walsh, ‘Capturing Marginalised Voices in Multi-Stakeholder Development Processes: A Participant-Voice Framework’ (Project Lifecourse, NUI Galway: 2016), <www.universityofgalway.ie/media/ilaswebsiteitems/projectlifecourse/NUIG_CITIZEN_VOICE_REPORT_163000502.pdf> accessed 2 September 2022.

  19. 18   Ann Kayis-Kumar, Jack Noone, Fiona Martin and Michael Walpole, ‘Pro Bono Tax Clinics: An International Comparison and Framework for Evidence-based Evaluation’, Australian Tax Review 49, no. 2 (2020): 110.

  20. 19   Kayis-Kumar, Noone, Martin and Walpole, ‘Pro Bono Tax Clinics’, 110.

  21. 20   Ibid., 125.

  22. 21   Margaret Lamb, Andrew Lymer, Judith Freedman and Simon Lames, Taxation: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Research (Oxford University Press, 2004).

  23. 22   Castelyn, Bruce and Morgan, ‘2019 National Tax Clinic Project’, 28.

  24. 23   Ann Kayis-Kumar, Gordan Mackenzie and Michael Walpole, ‘Interprofessional Collaborative Practice in Pro Bono Tax Clinics: A Case Study Approach’, Journal of Australian Taxation 22, no. 2 (2021): 49, 59; Robert B. Whait, ‘2019 National Tax Clinic Project: Unisa Tax Clinic’, Journal of Australian Taxation 22, no. 2 (2021): 137.

  25. 24   Helen Codd et al., ‘ “The Best of Times and the Worst of Times”: Reflections on Developing a Prison-Based Business Law and Tax Clinic in the Midst of a Global Pandemic’, International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 27 (2020): 39, 43.

  26. 25   Kapil Dev Singh, ‘Creating Your Own Qualitative Research Approach: Selecting, Integrating and Operationalizing Philosophy, Methodology and Methods’, Vision 19, no. 2 (2015): 132; and Oats, ‘On Methods and Methodology’.

  27. 26   Margaret McKerchar, ‘Designing and Administering Surveys’, in Lynne Oats (ed.), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012).

  28. 27   Diana Onu, ‘Measuring Tax Compliance Attitudes: What Surveys Can Tell Us about Tax Compliance Behaviour’, in John Hasseldine (ed.), Advances in Taxation (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2016).

  29. 28   Ibid.

  30. 29   McKerchar, ‘Designing and Administering Surveys’, 40.

  31. 30   Ibid.

  32. 31   Emer Mulligan and Lynne Oats, ‘Tax and Performance Measurement: An Inside Story’, in John Hasseldine (ed.), Advances in Taxation (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2016).

  33. 32   Margaret McKerchar, ‘Using Quantitative Approaches’, in Lynne Oats (ed.), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012).

  34. 33   John W. Creswell, ‘Five Qualitative Approaches to Enquiry’, in Qualitative Enquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches (Sage, 2013).

  35. 34   Diana Onu and Lynne Oats, ‘Tax Talk: What Online Discussions about Tax Reveal about Our Theories’ (Tax Administration Research Centre, 2015), <https://tarc.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/businessschool/documents/centres/tarc/publications/discussionpapers/Tax_talk_2.pdf> accessed 2 September 2022, 24; Diana Onu and Lynne Oats, ‘ “Paying Tax is Part of Life”: Social Norms and Social Influence in Tax Communications’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 124 (2016): 29, which demonstrates a discourse analysis approach.

  36. 35   Andrea Bingham and Patricia Witkowsky, ‘Deductive and Inductive Approaches to Qualitative Data Analysis’, in Charles Vanover, Paul Mihas and Johnny Saldaña (eds), Analyzing and Interpreting Qualitative Data: After the Interview (Sage, 2021), 133–46.

  37. 36   Karen Boll, ‘Ethnography and Tax Compliance’, in Lynne Oats (ed), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012), 50.

  38. 37   Creswell, ‘Five Qualitative Approaches to Enquiry’.

  39. 38   Helen Rogers and Lynne Oats, ‘Case Studies’, in Lynne Oats (ed.), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012), 32.

  40. 39   Onu and Oats, ‘Tax Talk’.

  41. 40   Rebecca Boden et al., ‘Critical Perspectives on Taxation’, Critical Perspectives on Accounting 21, no. 7 (2010): 541.

  42. 41   Karen Boll, ‘Mapping Tax Compliance: Assemblages, Distributed Action and Practices: A New Way of Doing Tax Research’, Critical Perspectives on Accounting 25, no. 4–5 (2014): 293; Karen Boll, ‘Actor Network Theory and Tax Compliance’, in Lynne Oats (ed.), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012).

  43. 42   Lynne Oats, ‘Varieties of Institutionalism’, in Lynne Oats (ed.), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012). Emer Mulligan, ‘New Institutional Sociology and the Endogeneity of Law’, in Lynne Oats (ed.), Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook (Routledge, 2012).

  44. 43   Sven Modell, ‘For Structure: A Critical Realist Critique of the Use of Actor-Network Theory in Critical Accounting Research’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 33, no. 3 (2019): 621.

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