By now, we should all understand the ethical obligations we have as CPAs. So, theoretically, if we just all agree to remain ethical, we should not have CPA ethical violations. But, of course, our professional ethics committees still have plenty of cases to investigate. This session will examine several ethical frameworks, including the AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct’s and the GAO Yellow Book’s Threats and Safeguards approach to remaining ethical and resolving ethical dilemmas. The session will present several ethical case studies that illustrate the complexities of and challenges to staying ethical. By exercising our “ethical muscles”, we should be better positioned to effectively deal with the ethical dilemmas that we will inevitably encounter.
Learning Objectives
- Ethical frameworks
- The AICPA’s and Yellow Book’s Threats and Safeguards methods
- Why conflicts of interest are often the greatest ethical issues to deal with
Major Topics
- Ethical frameworks
- Threats and safeguards to objectivity and independence
