Ethics Cpas

A handful of high-profile accounting misdeeds at Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and the like have left the entire accounting profession scrambling to assert its validity and negotiate a flurry of new regulations. Ethics for CPAs provides a valuable road map to this new landscape, instructing accounting professionals on how to abide by the new pronouncements and, if necessary, how to professionally respond to an investigation.

Employing an information-mapping format, Ethics for CPAs separates information into small units based on purpose or function for the reader, rather than by topic, creating an accessible desk reference. This authoritative guide covers the most recent and extensively revised ethics requirements of the:

• AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct
• SEC
• Department of Labor
• GAO’s Yellow Book
• State societies and state boards

With a companion Web site posting interpretations of new pronouncements within thirty days of issuance, Ethics for CPAs proves the most up-to-date and comprehensive resource on the market.

Accountants are under attack. Recent investigations of Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom, and Adelphia, just to name a few, along with the remarkable collapse of Arthur Andersen, have focused the nation’s attention on the accounting profession and the need for reforms. All parties agree that accounting firms must change their priorities and attitudes to put more emphasis on ethics, quality of audits, and on investor and public interests. But recent significant revisions to guidance from the AICPA, SEC, GAO, and IFAC make it difficult to keep up with the latest requirements. Without a clear and up-to-date knowledge of these changes, CPAs enter a minefield that could lead to a variety of sanctions. Ethics for CPAs helps accounting professionals navigate this minefield, providing a reader-friendly, timely resource on the latest ethical pronouncements and considerations.

This comprehensive guide integrates the various requirements of the AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct, the SEC, the Department of Labor, the GAO’s Yellow Book, and state societies and state boards. The book also contains information on ethical standards for consulting and tax services, and provides a concise analysis of international ethics requirements. Drawing upon years of experience consulting on ethical issues, the authors deliver invaluable guidance on how a CPA should respond to an ethics investigation, proceeding step-by-step through the entire process. Ethics for CPAs also:

• Presents information in an easy-to-use information-mapping format that enables CPAs to find the information they need, fast
• Identifies and discusses specific ethical issues raised by the Enron investigation
• Contains practical examples and user-friendly practice aids
• Includes self-study CPE, pursuant to the requirement by many states that CPAs complete a minimum number of hours on ethics-related topics for each licensing period

Each chapter contains a section that provides guidance on the authoritative sources for the topics discussed and also provides information on where CPAs can go to get more information on ethics issues. Guidance on future pronouncements will be posted on www.wiley.com/ethics within thirty days of issuance. Ethics for CPAs supplies accounting professionals with a much-needed authoritative resource for meeting expectations in challenging times.

DAN M. GUY, CPA, PhD, is the former Vice President of Auditing Standards for the AICPA. He currently has a litigation consulting practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

D. R. CARMICHAEL, CPA, CFE, PhD, is the Director of Baruch College’s Center for Financial Integrity and the Wollman Distinguished Professor of Accountancy at Baruch College. He acts as a consultant on accounting, auditing, and control matters, and has also investigated numerous cases involving allegations of fraudulent financial reporting, providing expert-witness testimony on those matters.

LINDA A. LACH, CPA, is the Associate Director for Baruch College’s Center for Financial Integrity and is the former director of professional development for the AICPA.