Accounting Ethics

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

Ethics are crucial to the accounting profession and the business world, so choosing an ethics system to base your moral decisions on is extremely important. Accountants and all business professionals will be confronted with moral dilemmas on a daily basis. Being strong in your faith and knowing what you believe in will help you to always make the right decision. Based on this reasoning, this essay will explain why deontology is the best ethics system for the accounting profession.

The study is important because it examines the role of ethics in accounting. The research on identified problems is necessary due to vagueness of ethics concepts and its difficulty to

A tax accountant is a professional who specializes in filing tax returns for both individuals and businesses. At the beginning of each year, the IRS requires you to file your taxes, and a tax accountant can help you do just that.

Industries around the world, some more than other, have revenue and assets higher than the GDP of a number of nations. This makes them more powerful than those nations. These companies are run by Individuals who essentially make decisions on how the profit is made and how operations and activities are carried out. Their actions and decisions could potentially have an impact on a number of things, generally; the environment, national economies and even the lives of people somewhere on the globe. Making ethical decisions entails the decision maker(s) moral judgement about what is right and wrong and is carried out based on what they think is the right course of action. This may involve whiling away what could potentially increase a business’s yield financially but will also cause harm or pain for other stakeholder’s involved. This is why among many other reasons, ethics is very important for both the businesses and the society.

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 considered to be the only person that knows you better than you know yourself, which is why the most important factor when considering an accountant is trust. They are responsible for confidentiality of financial information; record keeping by daily posting; and consulting input on market trends, real estate purchases and investments. Due to these responsibilities, accountants are obligated to act in the interest of the party and also respect the Code of Ethical Principles and Standards. In the case of Rihanna (Plaintiff) vs Berdon LLP (Defendant), Rihanna accuses her accountants of very strong claims. These claims include Rihanna losing millions due to mismanagement of her cash flow, expense, and touring income; mishandle of her taxes and failure of applying for tax returns; and lastly omission of discouragement of buying multi-million dollar house when experiencing financial problems.

1) The discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation

Establishing principles for ethical behavior frequently starts with a policy on ethics. Businesses acquire a policy on ethics to guide their measures and to set up a general meaning of correct versus incorrect. According to the American Library Association, code of ethics is a handbook for suitable behavior (2012).

Accounting professionals consider standard practices of accounting and board of accountancy rules when creating ethical standards. Accountants also consider state and federal laws. Ethics and the law works hand-in-hand therefore should be on the minds of those considering the commission of fraud. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Excello, Terry Reed, was considering doing such by posting a $2.1 million transaction to raise year-end earnings.

The article “Ethical reasoning: Implications for Accounting” by Mintz and Morris from Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in Accounting, summarizes modern moral philosophies and defines different views on ethics according to the philosophy being followed. There are four broad categories of moral philosophies: teleology, deontology, justice theory, and virtue ethics. In many cases, there are specific subgroups within these major groups. The article gives specific examples of when each philosophy should be used and illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of each philosophy.

In accounting, ethics are based on a commitment to honesty and objectivity. Financial reports are to be shown in the clearest and most accurate way possible. Investors, creditors, managers, employees, and even customers need to be confident that their accounting professional is honest and consistent with accounting standards, otherwise there is a loss of trust and an increasing chance of fraud. Pretty much every individual is in some way impacted by the decisions and actions of an accountant they’ll never meet.

If management and the board of directors take appropriate remedial action, should Barber be required to report the matter outside the company?Â

Ethics is perhaps one of the most significant disciplines that should always be evident in every profession. Just like in the field of Accountancy where adherence to the Professional Code of Ethics is an utmost importance. It serves as the foundation for the practice of one’s own profession and it helps ensure the highest quality of service to the public (Ballada, 2015). Moreover, knowledge on ethics enables an individual to make a more reasoned judgement regarding what is morally right from wrong when faced with ethical dilemmas.

Ethics basically deals with what is right versus what is wrong. As human beings we face the task of making ethical decisions every day. Some decisions are easier than others to make; however, it is important to make the right decision because every decision has consequences good or bad. The bible tells us in Proverbs 21:2-3 that, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” (NIV). Our individual ethical beliefs affects how we behave and treat one another. When we are in a setting in which decisions are made by more than one person, our individual ethical beliefs and greed can have a big impact on the decisions that we make as a group. According to Rae, “Ethics are important because they give direction to people and societies who have some sense that they cannot flourish without being moral” (2009). In this paper I will discuss the importance of ethics in the following fields: business, medicine, and politics. While these three fields have some common ground, they also have separate ethical guidelines. In recent years the business field has been hit the hardest with new ethical guidelines.