PACCFINTAX / Financial Accountability and Management Special Issue Workshop

In July 2025, PACCFINTAX hosted a two-day international workshop at Cardiff Business School, bringing together academics and practitioners to discuss how changing forms of coordination between public sector organisations shape accounting, audit, budgeting, financial management, and oversight mechanisms.

The event featured 12 research papers covering a range of jurisdictions including Brazil, China, Germany, India, the UK, Albania, and the UAE, and attracted participants from Brazil, Germany, Italy, South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

A highlight of the workshop was a keynote address by the Auditor General for Wales, Adrian Crompton, who offered reflections on the challenges facing the Welsh public sector and discussed implications for public sector accountability and governance.

The workshop formed part of a forthcoming special issue of Financial Accountability and Management exploring how reforms to vertical coordination in the public sector – driven by factors such as decentralisation, New Public Management reforms, and emerging multilevel challenges such as sustainability – reshape public sector accounting and financial governance.

Tax Research Network (TRN) Conference 2024

Cardiff Business School hosted the 2024 TRN Annual Conference on 9 – 11 September 2024. The conference was organised by PACCFINTAX Co-Directors Professor Carla Edgley and Dr Dennis De Widt, in collaboration with Ms Terry Filer (Swansea University) and Mrs. Nicky Thomas (University of Exeter). Delegates were welcomed to the conference by Professor Rachel Ashworth, Dean and Head of Cardiff Business School.

Keynote speakers included Nina E. Olson, Executive Director, Center for Taxpayer Rights, and former head of the United States’ Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, and Erich Kirchler, professor of Economic Psychology at the University of Vienna. They were joined by 64 presenters during the two research days of the conference programme. The presentations covered a wide spectrum of tax research carried out across the globe, with, beyond the UK and other European countries, researchers present from Australia, China, South Africa, Singapore, and the US, amongst others.

The Tuesday afternoon comprised a panel discussion focusing on ‘Tax policymaking and tax administration reform: The role of taxpayer behaviour’. Speakers included Erich Kirchler; Ellen Milner (Chartered Institution of Taxation); Felix Hathaway (Office for Budgetary Responsibility); Lakshmi Narain (Azets) and Ritchie Tout (Azets).

The Education Day comprised of eight presentations and a keynote address by Lucy Chalmers-Morris, Deloitte Data & Innovation, examining the question “AI - what does it mean for the tax profession and professionals?” The day and conference concluded with a panel discussion on “Re-imagining assessment” with Lucy Chalmers-Morris, Vicky Purtill (Chartered Institution of Taxation), Ritchie Tout (Azets) and Matt Townsend (Cardiff University).

Professor Andrew Lymer, Aston University, Chair, Tax Research Network closed the conference.

Sponsors of TRN 2024 were Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Charitable Trusts, Chartered Institution of Taxation (CIOT), The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), Azets and Tax Notes.

More photographs from this event can be found online.