The development of a multidimensional meaning of tax: From unfair tax to fair
(2023) In Discourse & Communication 17(1). p.57-76- Abstract
- Historically, companies have communicated taxes as a burden, as the benefits provided by governments are not perceived to be in proportion to their payments. With sustainable development becoming central in many policy areas, new discourses including ‘fair’ or ‘sustainable’ tax have become omnipresent in public talk on taxes. This paper analyzes tax discourses in corporate annual reports within this changing context to examine the use of language in the construction of the meaning of tax. By analyzing tax reporting by a state-owned multinational company over two decades, we observe that the communication of taxes increased in both number and types of discourses. Importantly, this highlights the shift in tax discourses from one dominated by... (More)
- Historically, companies have communicated taxes as a burden, as the benefits provided by governments are not perceived to be in proportion to their payments. With sustainable development becoming central in many policy areas, new discourses including ‘fair’ or ‘sustainable’ tax have become omnipresent in public talk on taxes. This paper analyzes tax discourses in corporate annual reports within this changing context to examine the use of language in the construction of the meaning of tax. By analyzing tax reporting by a state-owned multinational company over two decades, we observe that the communication of taxes increased in both number and types of discourses. Importantly, this highlights the shift in tax discourses from one dominated by codified accounting discourse reinforcing the monolithic representation of tax as an unfair expense, to one where tax is given a multidimensional meaning within a broader discursive context, where tax is a meaningful corporate responsibility to society. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Historically, companies have communicated taxes as a burden, as the benefits provided by governments are not perceived to be in proportion to their payments. With sustainable development becoming central in many policy areas, new discourses including ‘fair’ or ‘sustainable’ tax have become omnipresent in public talk on taxes. This paper analyzes tax discourses in corporate annual reports within this changing context to examine the use of language in the construction of the meaning of tax. By analyzing tax reporting by a state-owned multinational company over two decades, we observe that the communication of taxes increased in both number and types of discourses. Importantly, this highlights the shift in tax discourses from one dominated by... (More)
- Historically, companies have communicated taxes as a burden, as the benefits provided by governments are not perceived to be in proportion to their payments. With sustainable development becoming central in many policy areas, new discourses including ‘fair’ or ‘sustainable’ tax have become omnipresent in public talk on taxes. This paper analyzes tax discourses in corporate annual reports within this changing context to examine the use of language in the construction of the meaning of tax. By analyzing tax reporting by a state-owned multinational company over two decades, we observe that the communication of taxes increased in both number and types of discourses. Importantly, this highlights the shift in tax discourses from one dominated by codified accounting discourse reinforcing the monolithic representation of tax as an unfair expense, to one where tax is given a multidimensional meaning within a broader discursive context, where tax is a meaningful corporate responsibility to society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/9258f01f-0682-4812-98ec-8e88a6580fcc
- author
- Hilling, Axel LU ; Sandell, Niklas LU ; Sonnerfeldt, Amanda LU and Wilhelmsson, Anders LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-02
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Accounting, Annual report, Discourse analysis, Fair tax, Financial communication, Intertextuality, Language, Longitudinal studies, Recontextualization, Sustainability, Tax, Accounting, annual report, discourse analysis, fair tax, financial communication, intertextuality, language, longitudinal studies, recontextualization, sustainability, tax
- in
- Discourse & Communication
- volume
- 17
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 20 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85143843707
- ISSN
- 1750-4813
- DOI
- 10.1177/17504813221131219
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 9258f01f-0682-4812-98ec-8e88a6580fcc
- date added to LUP
- 2022-12-12 14:33:38
- date last changed
- 2023-02-28 04:05:02
@article{9258f01f-0682-4812-98ec-8e88a6580fcc,
abstract = {{Historically, companies have communicated taxes as a burden, as the benefits provided by governments are not perceived to be in proportion to their payments. With sustainable development becoming central in many policy areas, new discourses including ‘fair’ or ‘sustainable’ tax have become omnipresent in public talk on taxes. This paper analyzes tax discourses in corporate annual reports within this changing context to examine the use of language in the construction of the meaning of tax. By analyzing tax reporting by a state-owned multinational company over two decades, we observe that the communication of taxes increased in both number and types of discourses. Importantly, this highlights the shift in tax discourses from one dominated by codified accounting discourse reinforcing the monolithic representation of tax as an unfair expense, to one where tax is given a multidimensional meaning within a broader discursive context, where tax is a meaningful corporate responsibility to society.}},
author = {{Hilling, Axel and Sandell, Niklas and Sonnerfeldt, Amanda and Wilhelmsson, Anders}},
issn = {{1750-4813}},
keywords = {{Accounting; Annual report; Discourse analysis; Fair tax; Financial communication; Intertextuality; Language; Longitudinal studies; Recontextualization; Sustainability; Tax; Accounting; annual report; discourse analysis; fair tax; financial communication; intertextuality; language; longitudinal studies; recontextualization; sustainability; tax}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{57--76}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Discourse & Communication}},
title = {{The development of a multidimensional meaning of tax: From unfair tax to fair}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17504813221131219}},
doi = {{10.1177/17504813221131219}},
volume = {{17}},
year = {{2023}},
}