AICPA to Overhaul Ethics Code

Source: Journal of Accountancy

The AICPA's Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC) is recodifying and enhancing the organization's Code of Professional Conduct. This article reviews the planned changes. Many of the changes involve reorganizing the code into topical areas to make it easier for practitioners to find what they need and ensure that they consider all relevant standards necessary to reach the right conclusion.

One of PEEC's goals is to continue the process of converging the AICPA's code with the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. To that end, PEEC plans to more fully integrate the “conceptual framework” into the AICPA code. The conceptual framework, currently limited to the code's independence rules, provides principles-based guidance on complying with ethical standards in situations in which no specific rule exists. PEEC plans to expand the conceptual framework approach to other rules as well.

The recodification will have little impact on existing standards, but it should make the code easier to apply and provide more useful guidance for dealing with the “gray areas.”

For the complete article, read “Improving the Code of Professional Conduct.”

From Journal of Accountancy, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, June 2011, http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2011/June.