In 2018, a joint report of the World Bank Governance Global Practice and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Centre for Tax Policy and Administration illustrated the serious threat facing the global community from increasingly complex forms of economic crime. Critically, in documenting such crime, the report confirmed that “while viewed as distinct crimes, tax crime and corruption are often intrinsically linked.” Although clearly acknowledging the intimate relationships between fraudulent and corrupt practices in taxation, the study did not delve deeply into these interconnections. The report used the word “corruption” but its analysis adopted the narrower conception of “bribery,” in this context meaning a payment to a government official to evade taxes. Thus, the study failed to explore the complexity of the linkages between tax crimes and corruption. This article argues that such a limited perspective may distort justice by creating a false narrative and disregarding how other forms of pervasive corrupt practices adversely affect tax crime enforcement. To facilitate a deeper understanding of how corruption may undermine strategies to counter tax crimes, society must embrace a conception of corruption that extends beyond the notion of bribery. Such corruption must be recognized as a pervasive social problem and a multifaceted criminal phenomenon.
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