Internationalization@home 2024

On April 25 and 26, we hosted the second edition of the internationalization@home project for our students of the complementary study program in Business Economics – Taxation as part of their course on tax planning and strategy. Accompanied by prof. dr. Andreas Oestreicher and Matti Boie-Wegener, a group of nine motivated students from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany) embarked on a journey to Ghent. The aim of their endeavor was not (only) to discover the charm of Ghent’s medieval city center and to meet the local students, but predominantly to get immersed in the topical debate on fair taxation.

The Belgian and German students were divided into mixed groups in order to work on a case study. The starting point of their assignment was the Starbucks teaching case developed by Campbell and Helleloid (2016). Albeit outdated given that an impressive gamut of new regulations to curb tax avoidance has entered into force since, the facts and figures from this infamous case provided the students a reference frame to discuss the appropriateness of certain tax planning practices. By means of some steering questions, we probed the students to consider the impact on different stakeholders, the consistency of tax avoidance with CSR commitment … as to lead up to a general appraisal and their understanding of what a ‘fair share of taxes’ should be. Taking things forward, the student groups subsequently examined post-controversy press releases, annual reports, CSR reports … as to rule on whether, and how, the company changed its tax behavior (and transparency) after being scrutinized. 

As a deliverable, each group wrote a summary report outlining the different arguments brought about in the group discussion and the key takeaways from the post-controversy investigation. The cherry on top was a plenary discussion on fair taxation during which the students could share their arguments with members from other groups.

You obviously can’t keep your nose to the grindstone all the time. Under this motto, our students took their German peers under their wings for two games of bowling and a dinner on Thursday evening. Additionally, through informal lunches on both days, we provided further opportunities for the students to grow their international network.

We look back on a successful second edition for the students as well as for ourselves, and on a successful as well as pleasantly sustained collaboration with our colleagues from Göttingen.

Isabelle Verleyen – Annelies Roggeman – Kenny Dekoster

_{Campbell, K., & Helleloid, D. (2016). Starbucks: Social responsibility and tax avoidance. Journal of Accounting Education, 37, 38-60.}