Tax and Culture
Convergence, Divergence, and the Future of Tax Law

Addresses the often overlooked connection between cultural issues and tax law by applying insights from the social sciences.

Michael A. Livingston (Author)

9781316502006, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 June 2022

143 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.9 cm, 0.22 kg

'The book Tax and Culture: Convergence, Divergence, and the Future of Tax Law, by Michael Livingston, makes an exceptionally valuable contribution to the field of critical tax scholarship, and to tax legal scholarship more broadly.' Ann Mumford, British Tax Review

Tax scholars traditionally emphasize economics and assume that all tax systems can be evaluated in more or less the same way. By applying the insights of anthropology, sociology, and other social sciences, Michael A. Livingston demonstrates that tax systems frequently pursue different values and that the convergence of tax systems is frequently overstated. In Tax and Culture, he applies these insights to specific countries, such as China and India, and specific tax issues, including progressivity, tax avoidance, and the emerging area of environmental taxation. Livingston concludes that the concept of a global tax culture is, in many cases, merely a reflection of Western hegemony, and is unlikely to survive the changes implicit in the rise of non-Western nations and cultures.

1. Introduction: comparative law and its relevance to the tax field
2. Tax anthropology: attitudes, behaviors, and the role of historical contingencies
3. Tax sociology: the significance of tax institutions
4. Convergence, divergence, and the persistence of national differences
5. Case studies I: the tax cultures of selected Western and nonwestern countries
6. Case studies II: progressivity, tax avoidance, and environmental taxes
7. Conclusion: the limits of globalization and the continuing importance of culture.

Subject Areas: Comparative law [LAM], Law [L], Taxation [KFFD1]