Understanding the Roles Tax Advisory Professionals Play in the Digitalization of Tax Administration: Mechanisms of Influence in Global Reform Contexts

This study explores the emerging roles of global tax advisory firms in the digital transformation of tax administration (DTA)—a rapidly evolving frontier of digital government where the influence of external actors remains underexamined. As national governments increasingly turn to firms like the Big Four to modernize tax systems, the diverse modes through which these actors engage have yet to be conceptually mapped or empirically explored in depth. Using a qualitative, exploratory research design, we analyze five expert interviews, more than fifty policy documents, and digital archival materials to identify five provisional mechanisms of influence: strategic positioning, reform brokerage, platform standardization, knowledge translation, and soft power accumulation. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives – including transaction cost economics, public choice theory, the resource-based view of the firm, and New Public Governance – we find that tax advisory firms operate not only as service vendors but as embedded reform actors who shape policy content, mediate stakeholder agendas, and contribute to the institutionalization of reform logic across diverse governance contexts. These findings offer early empirical insight into how state authority is co-produced in digital reforms and raise questions about capacity, consultant dependency, and accountability in consultant-led governance arrangements.