This study investigates the influence of three interest groups—businesses, the tax profession, and civil society—on tax rules in the context of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. Our study is important as prior research has not examined the direct influence of various interest groups on the content of tax rules by means of comment letters. Using content analysis, we seek to explain the lobbying success of the different interest groups by examining the relevance of the kind of information transmitted and the alliance strategies used. Results indicate that lobbying success is mainly explained by the vested interests of the three groups, with businesses less successful than the other two interest groups as long as all interest groups are equally able to provide information. We also find that the lobbying success of businesses increases when proposals require specific expertise. However, bias is still relevant for lobbying success as we find that proposals from tax professionals with practical experience, likely to reflect less bias, are relatively more successful than proposals from businesses. Furthermore, our results suggest that mobilizing commenters who have a shared interest in the form of alliances is a promising lobbying strategy. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of expertise and collective actions for lobbying success.

中文翻译：

---

评估不同利益集团对国际税收政策的影响：来自 BEPS 项目的证据*

本研究调查了经济合作与发展组织 (OECD) 税基侵蚀和利润转移 (BEPS) 项目背景下三个利益集团——企业、税务专业和公民社会——对税收规则的影响。我们的研究很重要，因为之前的研究没有通过评论信检验各种利益集团对税收规则内容的直接影响。使用内容分析，我们试图通过检查传输的信息类型和使用的联盟策略的相关性来解释不同利益集团的游说成功。结果表明，游说成功的主要原因是三个群体的既得利益，只要所有利益集团都能够平等地提供信息，企业就不如其他两个利益集团成功。我们还发现，当提案需要特定专业知识时，企业的游说成功率就会提高。然而，偏见仍然与游说成功相关，因为我们发现具有实践经验的税务专业人士的建议可能反映较少的偏见，比企业的建议相对更成功。此外，我们的结果表明，以联盟形式动员具有共同利益的评论者是一种很有前途的游说策略。总体而言，我们的研究结果强调了专业知识和集体行动对于游说成功的重要性。偏见仍然与游说成功相关，因为我们发现具有实践经验的税务专业人士的建议可能反映较少的偏见，比企业的建议相对更成功。此外，我们的结果表明，以联盟形式动员具有共同利益的评论者是一种很有前途的游说策略。总体而言，我们的研究结果强调了专业知识和集体行动对于游说成功的重要性。偏见仍然与游说成功相关，因为我们发现具有实践经验的税务专业人士的建议可能反映较少的偏见，比企业的建议相对更成功。此外，我们的结果表明，以联盟形式动员具有共同利益的评论者是一种很有前途的游说策略。总体而言，我们的研究结果强调了专业知识和集体行动对于游说成功的重要性。