University of Exeter Business School

Professor Lynne Oats

Professor Lynne Oats

Professor of Taxation and Accounting

 L.M.Oats@exeter.ac.uk

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 Streatham Court 

 

Streatham Court, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4PU, UK

Overview

Lynne Oats is Professor of Taxation and Accounting, University of Exeter Business School,and formerly Deputy Director of the Tax Administration Research Centre. Lynne worked at the Australian Taxation Office for 10 years before moving to academia in 1988, initially at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia and then moved to the UK in 1999, initially at Sheffield Hallam University, then Warwick University (2002-2010) and finally Exeter University from 2010 until 2020. Lynne retired from her full time role in December 2020, and is now working part time leading a new £1.3m ESRC funded 3 year research project entitled Fiscal Citizenship. 

Lynne’s research interests centre on taxation as a social and institutional practice, embracing historical and contemporary tax policy both nationally and internationally. She has a particular interest in new initiatives in relations between large corporate taxpayers, tax advisers and tax authorities and was part of an EU funded research consortium, FairTax (2015 - 2019). Lynne plays an active role in the tax academic community and served as a Commissioner on the Charity Tax Commission (2017-2019).

In addition to publishing numerous journal articles and book chapters, Lynne was founder and Managing Editor of Journal of Tax Administration (2015 - 2020), Associate Editor Accounting Forum (2018-2020) and is currently Subject Editor (Accounting) of British Tax Review. She is an editorial board member of Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Advances in Taxation. Lynne is co-author of Taxation Policy and Practice, and Principles of International Taxation. Lynne’s 2012 edited book Taxation: A Fieldwork Research Handbook is widely drawn on by scholars across the globe.

Nationality: British

Qualifications

PhD (Western Australia); PGCE (Warwick), PGDipBus (Curtin), B.Bus (WAIT)

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Research

Research interests

  • Social theory and taxation
  • Tax policy and practice
  • Tax history

Research projects

Social theory and taxation, exploring the way in which social theory can be used to help better understand the practices by which tax policy is put into action in society.

Tax policy and practice: research with former and current PhD students, concerned with the way in which tax obligations are managed by both taxpayers and the tax authorities, including tax avoidance. Current projects include the role of tax advisors in the large business tax environment, risk management in the context of large businesses and cooperative compliance arrangements with tax authorities, the role of social media in tax compliance and international tax practice including transfer pricing.
Tax history: ongoing research into 18th and 19th century taxation, including the Newspaper Stamp Duty project that examines the emergence and subsequent demise of UK taxation of newspapers. Also 20th century taxation, in particular the taxation of corporate profits, including the World War I excess profits duty.

Links


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External Engagement and Impact

External positions

  • Steering Group Member, UK Tax Research Network
  • Managing Editor, Journal of Tax Administration
  • Assistant Editor, British Tax Review
  • Editorial Board member, Legal Issues in Business
  • Guest Editor, Critical Perspectives on Accounting (2010)
  • External Examiner, School of Advanced Studies, University of London (2012 – 2015)
  • External Examiner, University College Dublin (2012 – 2015)
  • External Examiner, National University of Ireland, Galway (2009 – 2013)
  • ESRC appointed Consultant to HMRC's Tax Opinion Survey project (2011 – 2014)
  • Contributor, Tax Development Programme, HM Treasury (2008 – 2011)

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Teaching

Tax is a fast moving field that cuts across a number of disciplinary agendas. Students studying tax within the Business School can explore new ways of thinking, examining tax as a social phenomenon from the point of view of not only accounting and economics, but also law, politics, history and sociology.

Modules

2023/24

Information not currently available


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Supervision / Group

Alumni

  • Zakir Akhand: Tax compliance in Bangladeshi small businesses in the UK and Canada
  • Taehee Kim: The Introduction of ETS in Korea: Accounting and taxation issues (2015)
  • Marhaini Mahmood: Risk Management in the Malaysian Inland Revenue Department (2013)
  • Rodrigo Ormeno: Tax Policy in Chile (2015)
  • Helen Rogers: International Tax transfer pricing (2010)
  • Festo Tusubira: Tax compliance in small businesses in Uganda
  • Carlene Wynter: Property Tax in Portmore, Jamaica (2015)

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