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

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

The CPA is there to help the business. In this case, the CPA was not the best, but the CPA could help with the financial process. Setting better controls, which would make his job then easier.

1. The first person that faced an ethical dilemma was the former controller of Cardillo Russell Smith. Although he is not an accountant, he still had to make an ethical decision on whether to sign off on the transaction. He was called into the chairman’s office to be persuaded to sign the affidavit but he didn’t budge. Smith knew that recognizing the payment as revenue would be improper. The first accountant that faced an ethical dilemma was Helen Shepherd who was the audit partner overseeing Touche Ross. They found the same dilemma in the entry that Smith would not sign off on. Shepherd first discussed the entry with her subordinates before she questioned

“ 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).

As stated by Schroeder, el. (2005), my professional responsibilities as a CPA include independence, scope of services, confidentiality, practice development, and differences on accounting issues. It is my responsibility to keep my professional judgment unbiased and base my opinions on factual information and to keep my personal interest separate from the clients work. It is my responsibility not to indulge any client with nonaudit services not relating to the financial audit. It is my responsibility to keep the clients information confidential and only report information that is deemed necessary for investors and outside users. It is my responsibility to not enter in to any advertisement that would be misleading or untrue. It is my responsibility to determine and discuss with the client any differences in accounting issues that related to how transactions are

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

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.

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.

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.

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,

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

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

CPA? Where might a controller look for guidance, for help in managing a conflict between

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