Situation - You have managed to secure a six-week internship during the summer at the end of your 2nd year at university. It is for a large accounting and advisory firm in their corporate tax department in London. You are not sure that you are particularly interested in corporate tax but it looks like an excellent opportunity to explore this possible career.

During your internship you often spend days shadowing the tax professionals in your department by going with them to client meetings and taking notes. The discussions in the meetings about corporate tax are very technical and so beyond your limited understanding. On one occasion you go with one of the Partners (i.e. one of the most senior members of staff) of the accounting and advisory firm to a meeting. She has been very pleasant to you and youve enjoyed chatting with her about her family and the volunteer work (which her firm supports) that she does from time-to-time at her local food bank*.

The meeting is with a large financial institution who are a major client. The details of the discussion are hard to understand but it is basically about the client being advised by the Partner on how they can set up a new financial investment company that to the greatest possible extent (i.e. using tax havens, creating complex corporate legal structures) can pay as little tax as possible on the revenue they will generate from their investments. In the discussions some jokes are made about how hard it will be for HMRC (the part of the UK Government which is responsible for the collection of taxes) to understand their tax arrangements.

In the meeting you begin to feel uncomfortable about the ethics of advising companies on how to avoid tax you wonder whether you should avoid a possible career in corporate tax.

Exploring ethics

Based on the situation described your group needs to complete an analysis of the ethics involved. You need to refer to the material Thinking in triangles.. by taking the three different perspectives on ethics to complete your analysis:

Virtue An action is only right if it is an action that a virtuous (i.e. moral) person would carry out in the same circumstances.

Deontology People have a duty to do the right thing, even if it produces a bad result i.e. an action is more important than the consequences.

Utilitarian The consequences of any action are the only standard of right and wrong

Question:

1. From your analysis which do you think is the most appropriate ethical perspective forthis situation? Why?