Introduction 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. Who can Practice before the Internal Revenue Services? According to the Circular 230, Practice before the Internal Revenue Service relates to issues such communicating and corresponding with the Internal Revenue Services, preparing and filing tax returns on behalf of taxpayers, the taxpayer’s rights, or liabilities under the law and regulations. The Circular 230 was issued by the Treasury and internal revenue service. The following individuals are authorized personnel to practice before the Internal Revenue Service: attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries, and enrolled retirement plan agents. These personnel are subject to the regulations in the circular. The enrolled agents and retirement plan agents are subject to approval by the internal revenue service. Attorneys and Certified Public Accountants should be individuals who are not under suspension or discharge from practice. The Rules on Returns of Client’s Records The practitioner is required to return all records acquired during representation, at the client’s request. Clients often request for records when they are changing from one practitioners to the other. Section10.28(b) defines client’s records as all documents or written or electronic obtained from client or practitioner prepared or third
Pursuant to section 7801, the Secretary of Treasury (again Notice they do not define secretary) has full authority to administer and enforce the internal revenue laws and has the power to create an agency to enforce such laws. Based upon this, the Internal Revenue Service was created. Thus, the Internal Revenue Service is a body established by "positive law" because it was created through a congressionally mandated power. Moreover, section 7803(a) explicitly provides that there shall be a Commissioner of Internal Revenue who shall administer and supervise the execution and application of the internal
This post will discuss two ethical accounting dilemmas that could occur in the CPA profession. For each dilemma, it will explain how the dilemma could be resolved based on logic and reason. It will then support that proposed resolution through support from the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct.
The Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board (APESB) is a characterised mark of accountancy profession that plays an important role to the accounting employees, helping them to understand and comply with their responsibilities recognised by the fundamental principles of ethics. Nevertheless, there has been a massive growth of financial employees acting unethical behaviour, resulting in an ongoing liability for the business organisation. Many entities particularly in Australia have been investigated for stimulating tax evasion such as the ‘Tax Fraud case of Carl William Wheeler’ in year 2008-2009 which was accused for using tax havens in UK for evading tax obligations. However, there are points of view within the structure of professional
Enrolled Agent is a title given to those who are federally licensed tax practitioners. They are those who represents the taxpayer before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). They are experts and very intelligent in the taxation area. Enrolled Agents duties range from preparing tax returns, to representing clients in audits cases, collections and appeals. The Enrolled Agent title comes with many education or exams, qualifications, experience and a certain level of ethics. The Virginia Society of Enrolled Agent (n.d) website states:
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.
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
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
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,
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
The main purpose of tax research is to find the solutions to any tax problems that a client may have. The process of tax research is similar to that of coventional legal research. The researcher must evaluate the usefulness and apply the results of the research to a particular situation. There are two easily identifiable essential tax research skills. The first involves using certain mechanical methods that are used to identify and locate the tax authorities that will aid in solving a problem. The second skill involves a blend of reasoning and creativity. This research skill is more difficult to understand. Creativity is needed in order to explore the important relationships within the issues at hand and to find an adequate solution. There are times when no legal authority exists for the problem. If this happens, the individual conducting tax research must combine non-related facts, ideas, and legal authority to arrive at a truly innovative conclusion. The individual conducting the tax research shows that there is a difference between success and failure in the research process that is conducted. The process of using methodology is the key to successful tax research.
Ethical and legal obligations apply to all members of society. As one in society, the obligation to act in an ethical, law abiding manner on a daily basis is vital to the integrity of daily life. Many professions have their own code of ethics. Financial reporting is not exempt from such ethical and legal standards. One’s lively hood depends on decisions made in the business world. Business transactions are done daily and can impact one’s economic stability. Trust is placed in the hands of corporate America and an obligation of financial reporting to reveal a complete honest and legal picture of an entity’s accounting practices is important in attaining trust. This paper will discuss the obligations of
When determining and defending the use of a particular ethical system within the confines of a profession, it is important to evaluate the system in terms of the professional culture as well as the expected professional conduct laid out within the vocation itself. The accounting profession has been evolving for thousands of years. Early accounting records date business transactions back as far as third century B.C. (Schroeder, Clark, & Cathey, 2009). Early record keeping was for internal purposes and as societies and economies expanded, it became important to maintain records for external purposes as well. According to Schroeder, Clark & Cathey (2009), by the ninetheeth centruy, bookkeeing expanded into accounting (p. 3). From this time, it has been the duty of the accountant to serve the public interest and the profession has been culitvated into an organizational culture with professional norms and standards constantly taking shape in an effort to complete an all-inclusive conceptual framework.
Ethics is an extremely relevant value in business and consulting. The presence of recognized ethics and/or ethical practices tends to diminish the need for informative or legal/contractual precautions in the formalization of relationships, for both of the parts involved in a
witnesses also are included in the case. The primary issue in this case (drawn from actual