Ethical Dilemmas Faced By Suzanne Holl

When auditing a publicly held company, auditors need to observe principles. The ethical principles of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of

“ In order to prevent fraudulent financial reports and statements, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA) has created ethical standards” (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011). These standards aim to make financial professionals accountable for their accounting practices. This includes the integrity of financial reporting and ensuring financial reporting is done fairly and factually. Financial accountants and professionals should maintain professional integrity, objectivity, and independence to reduce the risk of resulting legal action, loss of profits, and a poor reputation if improper financial reporting is done (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011).

I have chosen to discuss the case of Terri Shiavo which was a very big ethical case back in 2005. She had been left on a ventilator for 15 years. So let’s start from the beginning. On February 25, 1990 Terri Schiavo had a cardiac arrest that was causes by extreme hypokalemia (low potassium) brought on by an eating disorder (Quill, 2005). As a result of this cardiac arrest Terri developed severe hypoxic – ischemic encephalopathy which is another way of saying lack of oxygen to the brain (Quill, 2005). During this period she exhibited no evidence of brain function and eventually scans of her brain showed severe atrophy of her cerebral hemispheres (Quill, 2005). Her electroencephalograms were fat, indicating no functional activity of the

Accountants are held to a higher ethical standards and they must performed their duties in compliance with standards or ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, which must be fully committed to. They must put clients or public interest first before their own. They must have and ethical values and maintain those values way beyond what the society or the company’s code of ethic. It is important that accountants’ behavior or ethical values is in conformity with the

Before Joe Smith decides what course of actions to take he must first consider that he responsibility to uphold professional competence, due professional care and integrity. As a CPA, we are in a profession that accepts a high level of responsibility towards the public interest and must constantly hold ourselves to those standards to uphold the trust of the public. We must constantly improve to learn technical skills that would could exercise while providing professional services to our clients. Joe found himself in a predicament in which he has to decide on presenting quality work or forfeiting quality work to meet an internal deadline. Personally, I do not believe he has to choose between either option as both could be merged to establish

Honesty and integrity are two character traits that every accountant should posses. According to Sawyer, Raabe, Whittenburg, & Gill (2015), “all professional services by a CPA should be rendered with objectivity and integrity, avoiding any conflict of interest” (p 18). This transaction appears to be a form of cheating.

Ethics in any industry is important, but for Accounting professionals and those in need of their services, it is a particularly stressed element. Information provided by accountants is used to make major decisions, including investing, downsizing, expanding, etc, so accountants are expected to be competent, reliable, and have a high degree of professional integrity. Because of these high expectations, the professional accountancy industry, like many other professions, has adopted professional codes of ethics (Woelfel, 1986). These ethical codes go above and beyond the requirements for state or federal laws and regulations. There are several professional organizations within the

It is imperative for tax professionals to understand the ethics environment of the practice. This paper is focused on the ethical responsibilities of tax professionals.

Imagine trusting your hard-earned money like your retirement savings to a financial adviser or Certified Public Accountants (CPA) only to lose it all in a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. In today’s world of business many organizations, financial planners and accountants are in the news due to the financial ethical breaches that have affected their customers, employees, and the general public. A CPA has to be responsible for their audits and take any punishments as a result of their mistakes, incompetence or illegal actions. CPAs are expected to have integrity in their work,

It is a relevant ethical dilemma because it is a situation in which an ethical decision needs to be made by a businessman (CFO of Gabriel Resources) where viable options to this case are available which will be judged further in this essay by applying ethical theory and concepts.

My answer to the above question may not be different if the controller was or was not a CPA because even though CPAs must act with integrity, objectivity, independence, due professional care, and an honest interest in serving the public I believe that all accounting professional have an obligation to serve the public and maintain highest ethical values.

Ethical issues have greatly transformed in our lives since the great Enron, Xerox and other huge corporations proposed big profits showing earnings of billions of dollars and yet in reality facing bankruptcy. These corporations faced great trouble with the federals and state for manipulating financial statements. But not only corporations can be blamed on this, accounting firms were involved in this as much as the corporations were. With the business stand point, ethics comprises of principles and standards that guide behavior. Investors, traders, customers, and legal system determine whether a specific action is ethical or unethical. Ethical issue is a vast subject, but we will look at the niche

As long as the largest quantity of people is receiving the greatest benefit as a result of a particular action, that action can be rationalized. With a greater understanding of the two major ethical systems proposed for the accounting profession, the evaluation of those systems becomes simpler.

With professions having this tremendous knowledge regarding a company’s financial standing and not being able to disclose the information to the public it can create major investment errors. With these restrictions in place by the AICPA the accountants and auditors “… in a position of having to choose between earning a livelihood or making a proper ethical choice” (Synder, 2011).

What draws me into the field of accountancy? Why do I want to launch a career as a certified public accountant (CPA)? What is there about numbers, spreadsheets, profit and loss statements, audits, inventory and fiduciary responsibility that appeal me? In this paper I will describe in detail the reasons why I am attracted to this field. Also, what are the duties and responsibilities of a CPA? How available are job openings for a person with the education and experience to work as a CPA? How well to companies compensate those hired as CPAs? These questions and issues will be thoroughly reviewed in this paper.