Abstract
In the United States, the limits on a fiduciary’s activities are usually developed by analogy, using existing fiduciary relationships as a guide. Many of the American neutral experts advising transition countries are attorneys, and as such are fiduciaries whose activities are confined within prescribed ethical boundaries. In addition, the subject of the neutral experts’ advice—whether they, as individuals, happen to be attorneys or not—is law reform. By rendering advice concerning the proper structure and content of a country’s tax laws, these experts are rendering what is arguably legal advice—broadly construed. In view of the nature of the advice being given and the fact that attorneys number among those rendering such advice, the attorney-client relationship will be employed in this article as the benchmark for setting ethical boundaries within which American neutral experts should confine their activities.
The purpose of this article is to begin to explore these ethical boundaries. Because the development of a complete ethical framework for the activities of American neutral experts is beyond the scope of this article, I have chosen, consistent with the impetus for writing this article, to focus on the ethical limits that should be imposed on American neutral experts when propagating Western tax rules in transition countries. However, even within this limited scope (and notwithstanding the use of the attorney-client relationship as a benchmark), this article is intended to cover the activities of all American neutral experts, whatever their respective professional calling or occupation, who are rendering tax reform advice to transition countries. As a result, the purpose of this article is not to point out that certain sections of the various state legal ethics codes may apply to attorneys who are advising transition countries; rather, it is to begin the process of elucidating and explicating the norms, derived from legal ethics, that should guide all American neutral experts when propagating Western tax rules in transition countries. By drawing attention to the ethical dimension of their conduct, this article aims to prod American neutral experts to reflect both on the nature and quality of the advice that they have been rendering to transition countries and on the nature and quality of the advice, if any, that they will render in the future—taking into account the guidelines developed in this article as well as any and all other relevant legal ethical norms.
Recommended Citation
Anthony C. Infanti,
The Ethics of Tax Cloning,
6 Fla. Tax Rev.
(2005).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/ftr/vol6/iss1/4