Ranking of Tax Journals – The Way Forward

Published on 01 Oct 09 by "AUSTRALIAN TAX FORUM" JOURNAL ARTICLE

This paper is concerned with the ranking of academic tax journals. The project started as a response to the former federal government’s Research Quality Framework (RQF). The RQF has now been replaced by the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative which, in many ways, is not unlike the RQF. As part of the ERA initiative, the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) and the Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD) all have released their lists of journal rankings. These lists include tax journals. The ranking of tax journals by the ARC and the ABDC are broadly similar. The ARC’s and the ABDC’s ranking of tax journals are controversial and are not supported by Australian tax academics. There are omissions and inconsistencies. Most importantly, their ranking methodologies appear to be ad hoc, so it is virtually impossible to assess their validity. Most of the ranking problems seem to arise from the facts that tax research is multidisciplinary and tax issues tend to be country-specific. Thus, treating tax as a sub-discipline of accounting, finance or law and ranking tax journals with accounting, finance and law journals will invariably produce unsatisfactory and inconsistent results.

Author profiles

Kalmen Datt

Kalmen is a senior lecturer in the School of Taxation and Business Law at the University of New South Wales, Australia and teaches courses which include GST, CGT, International Tax and Tax Litigation. Kalmen was previously a barrister in South Africa and a solicitor/barrister in NZ and has been admitted as a solicitor in Australia. He has practiced in courts of first instance and appeal. He has completed courses in mediation and has appeared in mediations and arbitrations as counsel. Prior to immigrating to Australia, Kalmen was a solicitor with Inland Revenue (IRD) in NZ advising on tax issues and was an advisor to a specialist anti avoidance team at IRD. He assisted the School of Business at the University of Auckland in teaching various tax courses. Kalmen has successfully completed the Common Professional exams in the UK. - Current at 21 October 2019

More by Kalmen DATT

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• The Commissioner’s obligation to make compensating adjustments for income tax and GST in Australia and New Zealand - 01-September-2018
• GST/VAT general anti‑avoidance approaches: some preliminary findings from a comparative study of Australia and South Africa - 01-July-2017
• The role of the criminal law for serious non compliance - 01-July-2013
• Is there a perception of revenue bias on the part of the ATO in private binding rulings on large, complex issues? - 01-September-2008

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Binh Tran-Nam

Binh is a Professor, School of Taxation & Business Law, UNSW Australia and RMIT Asia Graduate Centre, RMIT University Vietnam, and International Fellow, Tax Administration Research Centre, Exeter University-Institute for Fiscal Studies. - Current at 03 November 2016

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• Estimating aggregate tax compliance costs: a new approach using a state space model - 01-April-2017
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• A comparative analysis of tax advisers’ perception of small business tax law complexity: United States, Australia and New Zealand - 01-December-2012
• The mining withholding tax under Division 11C of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936: It may be simple but is it equitable? - 01-February-2012
• Tax policy simplification: An evaluation of the proposal for a standard deduction for work related expenses - 01-December-2011
• Ranking of Tax Journals – A Peer Perception Study - 01-June-2011
• Managing tax system complexity: Building bridges through pre-filled tax returns - 01-July-2010
• Effective marginal tax rates and work disincentives - 01-July-2007
• Towards systemic reform of the Australian personal income tax - 01-April-2007
• Personal income tax reform in Australia: The way forward - 01-July-2006
• The impact of Cedric Sandford on the Discipline of Tax Compliance Costs - 01-October-2002
• Estimating the Transitional Compliance Costs of the GST in Australia: A Case Study Approach - 01-October-2002
• Assessing the potential compliance costs/benefits of the tax value method - 01-January-2002
• Taxation compliance costs: some recent empirical work and international comparisons - 01-January-1998

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Dr Alfred Tran

Alfred is a Honorary Associate Professor, Research School of Accounting, The Australian National University. - Current at 17 April 2020

More by Alfred Tran

• A study of profit shifting using the Hines and Rice approach - 01-March-2023
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• The Australian dividend imputation system and corporate tax avoidance - 01-July-2019
• The impact of adopting IFRS on corporate ETR and book-tax income gap - 01-December-2017
• An empirical analysis of the tax burden of mining firms versus non-mining firms in Australia - 01-April-2016
• Can taxable income be estimated from financial reports of listed companies in Australia? - 01-September-2015
• Corporate tax strategy in the Australian dividend imputation system - 01-September-2013
• How close are taxable income and accounting profit? An empirical study of large Australian companies - 01-September-2013
• Risk as a measure in taxing financial arrangements - 01-December-2011
• Ranking of Tax Journals – A Peer Perception Study - 01-June-2011
• Enhancing taxpayers’ understanding and compliance with tax law using broadly accessible online decision support tools - 01-October-2009

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