Accountants remain most trusted players in tax globally

Professional accountants continue to be the single most trusted stakeholders in tax in every G20 country, according to a new survey.

The survey, released Wednesday by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, International Federation of Accountants, and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, polled 7,700 people across the G20 countries (excluding Russia but including New Zealand) and found respondents continue to have the highest level of trust in professional tax accountants, with 59% saying they either trust or highly trust accountants in relation to the tax system, Professional tax lawyers came next at 54%. Trust in government tax authorities ranked third highest, with 43% saying they trust or highly trust the tax authorities. However, 29% said they distrust or highly distrust government tax authorities, making them the most divisive profession in public opinion and the third most-distrusted group. Most people believe the role of professional accountants contributes to improving tax systems by making them more efficient (59%), more effective (57%), and fairer (55%).

Across the G20 countries, respondents' satisfaction with their dealings with tax authorities has increased since 2021. They see tax systems as a mechanism for positive change, but are concerned about corruption. Corruption has a major impact on attitudes toward tax across the globe, with over half (53.8%) of G20 respondents citing it as a major factor, while 16.5% reported that it is not a factor affecting their attitude to tax 

"The impact of corruption on trust in tax has been an emerging theme in our recent surveys, particularly in our 2022 Global Perspectives report, which focuses on jurisdictions outside of the G20," said IFAC CEO Kevin Dancey in a statement Wednesday. "Now, for the first time, we have specific data on that point, and the results are illuminating. Taken together with the continued trust in professional accountants, and additional new data on views about sustainable development, insight into the important interconnections between these issues is starting to come into view."

Some 68% of respondents in G20 countries see at least some connection between tax and sustainable development, and 57% of the respondents indicated they would be prepared to pay more tax to support it. While 43% of the respondents would not be prepared to pay any extra taxes to support development goals, 42% said they would be prepared to pay a small amount extra and 15% a significant amount of extra tax. 

Support for incentives to target global megatrends such as climate change and the aging population remains high, and 67.8% of respondents consider paying taxes to be linked with sustainable development, while 12.4% see no link between them at all.

"Throughout the course of these surveys, public unease about how tax moneys are spent has been a constant theme in respondents' comments," said ACCA chief executive Helen Brand in a statement. "Perceptions of corruption are a clear barrier to engagement with the tax system. Accountants have a central role to play in countering corruption, bringing transparency and accountability to the collection and spending of taxes across both public and private sectors."

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Respondents were more likely to agree than disagree that various taxpayer groups were paying a reasonable amount of tax, including average- or low-income individuals, high-income individuals, local companies and multinational companies. 

Survey respondents indicated that local companies were the most likely group to be paying a reasonable amount of tax. On a country-by-country basis, multinationals were the most likely group to face hostility. In five countries, the net response was that multinationals are not paying a reasonable amount of tax. The amount of tax paid by average-income and low-income individuals had the lowest net score for "reasonableness" at 23.8%. 

A number of respondents indicated in their comments that they considered the tax burden on the lowest-wealth group to be too high, while other comments highlighted the perceived injustice of higher-income individuals paying less tax. Nevertheless, more than half of respondents consider taxes paid by higher-income individuals to be reasonable. 

Nearly half (49.5%) of the respondents believe tax is mainly about laws and regulations, while 5% think tax is primarily a matter of morals and fairness, and 38% consider it to be an equal balance between the two.

The ACCA, IFAC and CA ANZ have been conducting similar surveys since 2017, and this is the fourth edition. As has been the case in all editions of the survey, the net balance reporting trust in professional tax accountants was greater than that of any other information source. The net balance increased to 44.6% in 2023, up slightly from 44.2% in 2021.

"As leaders in the global accountancy profession, we are proud to see the sustained high levels of trust in professional accountants, which is hard won, but easily lost. It is vital that we constantly work to maintain and earn trust through both our individual and collective actions<' said CA ANZ CEO Ainslie van Onselen in a statement. "Now, more than ever, the relationship between taxpayers, businesses and governments must be strengthened to provide security and certainty for our broader societies and economies and we look forward to continuing to engage with key stakeholders to drive trust in tax and trust in our profession."

The three groups plan to host an online event Thursday at 9:00 a.m. ET to discuss the results of the survey.