1000-1250 Words, Excluding References Details: Write a Letter to the Chief Financial Officer

Financial and Tax Ethics 1

Financial and Tax Ethics

INSERT CITATION 1 HERE.

The main purpose of the laws and regulations that affect the financial and accounting professions are in place to ensure that corporate reports are accurate and adhere to specific rules that make the reports easily understandable and uniform. Although laws are not always ethical, many of the laws that affect financial and accounting professions, including taxes, also have an ethical component because the honesty of the information provided is vital to the government, shareholders, employees, and the general public for many reasons. INSERT CITATION 2 HERE.The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the American Academy of Financial Management, and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as state licensing agencies all require, and enforce, multiple codes of ethics. There are several laws, moreover, whose standards require certain actions to be taken to ensure ethical standards of honesty and full disclosure of material facts are maintained.

INSERT CITATION 3 HERE.All of these standards must be met and are designed to ensure that all information is accurate and honest and the government and those who use the information can accurately rely on what it discloses. Because the regulations of the Internal Revenue service are issued to support the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code they are legally enforceable and a failure to uphold these standards can lead to legal penalties and even incarceration.

Ethical codes are also legally enforceable when they are created by government entities such as those that require financial analysts and tax practitioners, as well as accountants, to be licensed to practice their professions. These licensing boards require not only a specific level of education and training, but also require licensed professionals in these fields to uphold specific ethical standards, similar to those of the IRS Regulations. A failure to uphold these standards may lead to the loss of a license to work as a financial or tax analyst or an accountant.

In addition to these ethical codes and requirements, however, the Sarbanes Oxley Act also requires financial and tax analysts and reports to follow ethical standards. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, referred to as SoX was enacted shortly after the Enron failure and was designed to avoid a repeat of the unethical financial reporting practices that led to the failure of that organization. INSERT CITATION 4 HERE.In addition to this, however, there are the reporting standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

INSERT CITATION 5 HERE.FASB directly affects the way financial statements are prepared because it has specific standards for the preparation of financial statements. INSERT CITATION 6 HERE.

Ethical standards must be upheld in all areas of life. Although many view business as necessarily concerned only with profitability, it is well understood today that a focus on profit without a focus on ethics within an organization will ultimately only lead to ruin. INSERT CITATION 7 HERE. All persons in business and who manage a business’ financial and tax reporting must understand these requirements and act in ways that uphold honesty and integrity.

NOTE – I did not have any information from you about any “recent examples of changes in reporting standards” implemented

References