The words “tax governance” bring to mind many different concepts. This stems more from the term “governance” rather than the word “tax”. The term “governance” became the new buzzword towards the end of the last century when many corporate scandals surfaced. “Governance” or rather “good governance” conjures up control over abuse of power by not just directors of companies, but also by government bodies (including tax authorities) and advisors.  This is because – in the current business environmental framework – good governance should ensure that people in power practice principles of fairness, transparency and accountability. The term “tax governance”, therefore, typically tends to be viewed in this context, as improved governance by companies equals better tax compliance equals improved tax collections for tax authorities and/or governments. Tax Professionals point of view, our point of view, is to ensure the compliance of taxpayers with tax legislation. From our professional perspective, therefore, the interaction of tax and corporate governance is usually viewed in the context of “tax risk management”. More in details – especially in this post-crisis era – companies typically consider and measure tax risks both as penalties for non-compliance and/or overpayment of tax as a result of unrealized tax planning opportunities. Hence, risk management has been an integral element of corporate governance to minimize the occurrences of corporate scandals which in the past (but also nowadays, let's think for example to those cases which refer to the deemed permanent establishment of companies belonging to new digital businesses) … corporate scandals which fueled demands for greater transparency and disclosure. Accordingly, the identification and management of tax risks is no longer (if it ever really was) simply the province of corporate tax directors. In today's world of heightened focus on corporate governance, it is clear that also tax professionals should be involved in the process. There is no question, indeed, that tax matters are subject to increased scrutiny by tax authorities, regulators, legislators, investors and the media. To date, however, there has been no empirical study or literature that considers the synergy that tax professionals have on corporate governance principles. The OECD recommends that corporate governance should give greater attention to the linkage between tax and good governance. Corporate governance rules are also increasingly viewed by governments as a way to direct the behavior of corporate taxpayers. In Italy, recent legislation has been adopted by introducing certain regimes of internal tax control framework (e.g. cooperative compliance program) in order to enhance the collaboration between taxpayers (particularly, large multinationals) tax professionals and tax [continua..]