Responsive regulation and taxation: Introduction

The implementation of responsive regulation in taxation means influencing the community's commitment to pay tax through respectful treatment, through attending to resistance and reforming faulty processes, through fairly directed and fully explained disapproval of non-compliant behavior, through preparedness to administer sanctions, and capacity to follow through to escalate regulatory intervention in the face of continuing non-compliance. Responsive regulation and regulatory formalism are pitted against each other in this issue on responsive regulation and taxation. Normative and explanatory arguments in favor of responsive regulation are explored by data collected in taxation contexts; and institutional obstacles are identified that limit effective implementation.