Tax agents have important roles in tax systems as both advocates for their clients and intermediaries for the tax authorities. The roles of tax agents are becoming more challenging with the changes in the tax landscape, such as with the implementation of the self-assessment systems (SAS) which transfers more responsibility to taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations and who in turn, rely on tax agents to comply with the tax laws. This study examined some selected factors in understanding the tax agents’ tax compliance behaviour by extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour, by including two additional factors namely, ethical sensitivity and culture. Conducted in the tax jurisdictions of Malaysia and New Zealand, this study is comparative in nature. To understand the tax compliance behaviour of tax agents in this study, a mixed-method approach, combining surveys and semi-structured telephone interviews, was used. In Malaysia, the survey data were collected using a mail survey from a sample of tax agents in public practice whose names were listed on the website of the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board. Online surveys were used to collect responses from a sample of members of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) whose names were listed as public practitioners on NZICA’s website. Descriptive statistics and Partial Least Squares (PLS), a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, were used to describe and analyze the quantitative data. Transcribing, coding, finding the relevant themes and member checking were used to analyze the qualitative data of the study. Basically, the results indicate some similarities and some differences between tax agents’ compliance behaviour in Malaysia and New Zealand. Consistent with findings from prior studies, the results suggest that attitude towards intention to comply with the tax law was the most influential factor in explaining tax agents’ compliance behaviour to tax law in Malaysia and New Zealand in both scenarios of overstating tax expenses and understating income examined in the study. This was followed by ethical sensitivity, which was measured using Rest’s (1986) Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES), as the second influential factor in tax agents’ compliance behaviour to tax law. Mixed findings were recorded for culture which was measured using Hofstede’s (1980) National Cultural Dimensions and perceived behavioural control. No support, however, was found for subjective norms in the study. The findings from the survey were elaborated further in the interviews. The interviews with seventeen tax agents in Malaysia and fourteen tax agents from New Zealand provide some interesting findings. While the results of the survey indicate that attitude was found to be the most important factor in tax agents’ tax compliance behaviour, the interview findings clarified how tax agents understand attitude. For instance, attitude was interpreted as not only complying with the professional code of ethics, but also, fear towards being penalized, audited and interestingly, fear towards obtaining a bad reputation among the public and peers. Overall, the findings suggest that noneconomic factors, such as attitudes and ethical sensitivity, can explain the tax compliance behaviour of tax agents in the study. Some economic factors identified for example, amount of risk involved, the trade-off between costs and benefits, and the probability of being penalized, from the interviews could also potentially explain the tax compliance behaviour of the tax agents in Malaysia and New Zealand who participated in the study. The findings contribute to the theoretical and practical aspects of understanding the tax compliance behaviour of tax agents in two different countries. In a response to the calls for more cross-cultural research, this study reveals some similarities and differences in the tax compliance behaviour of tax agents in Malaysia and New Zealand which may be helpful in improving our understanding of the ethical decision making of tax agents. The findings from the study also provide some insights into the ethical behaviour of tax agents in Malaysia and New Zealand which may be useful for professional bodies and regulators.

民國93年6月2日公布「記帳士法」，該法制定的主要目的，係為建立記帳士制度，協助納稅義務人記帳及履行納稅義務。 目前關於記帳及稅務代理人之探討，有些偏重於文獻整理，有些則僅就委託人和記帳業者之看法，或是就會計師與記帳業者等之看法來比較探討之，僅張彰欽(2001)之研究將三方之觀點同時納入探討，惟其重點在探討兩岸地區稅務代理體制之異同。故本研究擬就三方之觀點，來配對探討記帳士法之頒布，對會計師之影響及其幅度為何？對記帳業者究竟是利是弊？以及對委託人而言，是否會影響其選擇會計師或記帳業者之決定？同時由於學生是未來潛在之會計師或記帳業者，為使研究更臻完整，故亦將其納入研究對象，以瞭解各方對記帳及稅務代理建制及記帳士法之看法以及此法案之影響。 研究結論如下： 一、委託人對記帳士法之看法受到所委託代理人的影響而有不同之看法。記帳士法之頒布，並不會使委託人考慮更換代理人，對於其在代理人之選擇上亦無太大影響。 二、記帳士法之頒布，雖有利於記帳業者在代客記帳及代理報稅等業務之規劃，對規模較小之會計師事務所衝擊較大，惟衝擊有限。 三、大學及研究所學生較支持會計師的看法，而高職學生則較支持記帳業者的看法，記帳士法之頒布，最能引起大學生畢業後進入記帳業工作之興趣。 / After years disputing, the Accounting and Tax Agents Act was finally passed on June 2, 2004. The Act provides the incumbent bookkeeper industry a legal supporting of its professional level and ability. However, until now only little research discussed about this topic. Most of researches either focus on literature reorganization or without covering opinions from all related parties, such as clients, CPAs, and tax agents, at the same time. Zhang (2001), the only exception of other research, compared the difference of tax agent system between Taiwan and China, which surveyed from all related parties simultaneously. However, Zhang’s research focuses on the comparing of the tax agents system and does not look into the impact of the system to all related parties. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to survey the impact of passing Accounting and Tax Agents Act from the perceptions of clients, CPAs, and tax agents. The unique of the research is that besides including all related parties at the same time, the survey also includes the perceptions of current students, who are the potential entrants for the industry, which provides some opinions of how the Act affects students future career planning. The research findings are as follows. 1.The perceptions of clients were impacted by their agents. Passing the Accounting and Tax Agent Act does not affect the clients to consider changing their accounting and tax agents, as well as agents selection. 2.Incumbent bookkeeper agents might benefit from the Act, especially in bookkeeping and tax agency job, and the Act might affect small size CPA firms, but for overall the threat to CPAs is limit. 3.The perceptions of graduate and undergraduate students are similar to CPA’s, and vocational high school students’ to Incumbent bookkeeper agents’. The undergraduate students display the most interests of entering the accounting and tax agent industry after they graduate.