Personal Profile

Margaret joined Atax in January 2005, prior to which she was an Associate Professor in Taxation and Accounting at the University of Sydney, Orange where she began her academic career in 1988. Whilst at the University of Sydney Margaret was a member of the Academic Board and the Program Leader for the Master of Sustainable Management. Her prior working experience includes both in accounting practice and the ATO. She is an experienced teacher in taxation, accounting, business management and in the design and conduct of research. Her research interests are principally in the areas of taxpayer compliance behaviour, tax administration, tax policy and tax reform. Within the profession, Margaret is an active member of CPA Australia and is currently NSW President and a member of both NSW Divisional Council and of CPA Australia's Tax Centre of Excellence. Margaret is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Australasian Tax Teachers Association (and is a past president of this Association) and of the Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting.

Research Fields

Margaret's research interests include:

• taxpayer compliance behaviour

• psychological costs of compliance

• tax policy

• tax history

• environmental tax

• small business

• tax complexity

Margaret has an international reputation as a leading tax researcher in taxpayer compliance. She has been awarded research grants and funding from the Board of Taxation, The Office of the Inspector General of Taxation, Taxpayers' Research Foundation, Australian Taxation Office, Australian Research Council and CPA Australia. Research Awards include runner-up in 2002 the OECD's 2nd Jan Francke Tax Research Award and the CPA Australia Frank Burke Tax Research Scholarship in 2003. In 2004 Margaret was awarded an international tax research fellowship at San Jose State University, US and in 2007 she was an invited speaker at the Internal Revenue Service Research Conference in Washington DC in 2007. Margaret was Co-Convenor of both the 7th and 8th International Conferences on Tax Administration hosted by Atax in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Margaret has given many conference papers and seminars both in Australia and overseas and has published extensively. In 2008 she was awarded ‘Best Teaching/Research Paper’ at the 20th Australasian Tax Teachers Association Annual Conference and was a Visiting Fellow at Curtin University. In 2009 Margaret received the Justice Graham Hill ATTA Medal in recognition of her ‘outstanding contribution to Australasian tax teaching and policy’.

Summary of Publications

For a full list of Margaret McKerchar's publications please click here.

Other

Margaret’s other teaching activities include supervising PhD and Masters research students. She is a registered tax agent.