The Evolutionary Advances in Tax Education in Canada and the Hegemonic Leadership of the Accounting Profession

Abstract

The main argument of this paper is that the accounting profession in Canada exercises hegemonic leadership over the development of tax education in terms of cadence and direction of reforms. To support this argument, the paper uses the development of the microeconomic approach to teaching taxation and the correlation between the numbers of tax courses taught in undergraduate programs and exemptions provided by the provincial institutes of the Canadian Chartered Accountants to students joining them. It uses arguments from institutional isomorphism to elucidate expected resistance to adopting new developments, such as the microeconomic approach, in the accounting field. The paper also builds on Gramsci’s theory of hegemony to imply that business schools have given their consent to the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants by closely linking their curriculum, at least the taxation courses, to that of the institute.

Citation

Ahmed Warsame, H. (2006), "The Evolutionary Advances in Tax Education in Canada and the Hegemonic Leadership of the Accounting Profession", Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 60-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/10264116200600004