This thesis argues that the international tax policy community is open to new ideas in times of crisis. However, in the development of an idea into policy, it is seriously weakened. Institutional...Show moreThis thesis argues that the international tax policy community is open to new ideas in times of crisis. However, in the development of an idea into policy, it is seriously weakened. Institutional norms and vested business interests have a strong conservative role in tax politics. Civil society activists fight for transparency of the practices of multinational companies in order to achieve fairer taxation. They successfully advocated a system of Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR), where companies have to report for each country they are active in. The idea was incorporated in the 2013-2015 OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. The global financial crisis and tax haven scandals helped galvanize political change. Previous research focusing on state actors and rational power politics cannot account for this unlikely underdog victory. Using public documents, this study traces the development of CbCR in the BEPS Project. It highlights the strong role of a global elite that is open to new ideas to legitimize its leadership of global tax policy. The OECD functions to depoliticize the process into technical discussions, where institutional norms and business interests dominate. The resulting weakened version of CbCR was implemented globally. This thesis provides an insight in the closed, though not impenetrable, bastion of international tax policy making and its mechanisms of change.Show less