The Tax Policy Debate: Increasing the Policy Impact of Academic Tax Accounting Research

Motivation-Academic accounting journals publish research with potential policy implications; however, the published manuscripts are often not considered by policymakers. We argue that the academic research currently being produced by accountants can have an increased policy impact. Objective-Our objective is to discuss how the policy impact of the academic research currently being produced can be increased by effectively integrating, presenting, and disseminating information that is useful to policymakers. Contribution to the Academic Literature-We offer the following recommendations to increase the policy impact of academic research: (1) integrate a discussion of the debate surrounding the tax policy issue under study into the manuscript; (2) explicitly offer detailed interpretations and implications of the research results; (3) proffer normative statements based on the empirical evidence; (4) provide a synopsis of the manuscript's contribution to the policy debate via a structured abstract; and (5) utilize additional communication channels to increase the visibility of the academic research to those interested in tax policy. Contribution to Decision Makers-The recommendations offered in this paper can help to increase the probability that the academic tax accounting research currently being produced is both directly useful and effectively disseminated to those interested in the tax policymaking process.