Ethically Speaking

At this quarter's meeting, the Professional Ethics Executive Committee agreed to issue five new Qs & As and three new ethics exposure drafts. The Auditing Standards Board has also issued exposure drafts on quality management and Ahava Goldman of the AICPA Audit and Attest team spoke about those at the meeting.

PEEC discussed several other standards-setting and member enrichment projects as well. Listen as Toni Lee-Andrews, AICPA Professional Ethics Division Director, and staff discuss these projects:

• SEC convergence (exposure draft)
• IESBA and IFAC convergence
• Unpaid fees (exposure draft)
• Assisting attest clients with implementing accounting standards (exposure draft)
• Information systems services practice aid
• Compliance audits
• Staff augmentation Qs & As
• NOCLAR interpretation
• Statements on Standards for Tax Services
• Quality management
• Member enrichment

To see the quality management exposure drafts, visit the AICPA Accounting and Auditing website.

You'll also find links there to several supporting documents, including this video explaining the project.

PEEC's next meeting is November 16, 2021 and we'd love you to register and join us.

Keep an eye on this page for links to the three ethics exposure drafts and the Qs & As as we publish them.

If you have questions about the substantive content of this episode, please call the ethics hotline at 888.777.7077 (option 2, then option 3) or email [email protected].

If you'd like to suggest topics for future episodes, please email [email protected].

A high priority of the Professional Ethics, Peer Review, and CPA Evolution teams at the AICPA is to help you, the practitioner, navigate the tricky waters of challenging times. In this episode, you'll hear from the teams' directors about this work and upcoming resources soon to be available.

Did you know when you joined the AICPA as a member that we have an ethics investigation and enforcement team? Do you know what we do as opposed to state boards of accountancy and federal agencies like the US Department of Labor?

In this episode, Jennifer Clayton, Associate Director of Ethics Enforcement at the AICPA, talks with Ian Benjamin, Enforcement Subcommittee Chair, and Melissa Critcher, Subgroup Chair, to clear up some common misperceptions about the AICPA's enforcement activities. You'll hear how the works with state boards of accountancy and federal agencies and how our focus on remediation helps our members and makes our process different.

If you're interested in more specifics about our investigation and enforcement process, you can listen to episode 5 of Ethically Speaking: Yikes! I'm being investigated. What now?

With remote work becoming more common, questions arise about what "office" means in terms of independence. Listen as Michael Schertingzer, CPA, and Kelly Hunter, CPA, discuss the history of the Professional Ethics Executive Committee's project on the definition of "office" as well as some particulars practitioners and firms should be aware of.

Tune into this first episode of our new ongoing series "What's hot on the hotline." In this episode Professional Ethics Division staffers Shannon Ziemba, CPA, CGMA and Liese Faircloth, CPA discuss records requests and nonattest services.

The Professional Ethics Executive Committee held its second quarter meeting this week. Listen as Toni Lee-Andrews, director of the AICPA Professional Ethics Division, and staff fill you in on the highlights, including SEC and IESBA convergence, staff augmentation, upcoming member enrichment projects and more.

The Professional Ethics Executive Committee had its 1Q meeting this week. Listen as Toni Lee-Andrews, director of the AICPA Professional Ethics Division, and staff fill you in on the highlights, including key votes on NOCLAR, records requests, and staff augmentation.

If you'd like more detail than we cover in this episode, you can review the meeting agenda. Full meeting minutes will be on PEEC's meeting information page after PEEC's next meeting in May.

What you'll hear:

• (00:36) Welcome
• (01:08) NOCLAR
• (02:05) Staff augmentation
• (09:48) Records requests
• (12:50) SEC convergence
• (16:00) Compliance audits
• (18:27) Convergence with IFAC's role and mindset standard
• (20:05) IESBA activity
• (22:45) Statements on Standards for Tax Services

If you have questions about the substantive content of this episode, please call the ethics hotline at 888.777.7077 (option 2, then option 3) or email [email protected].

If you'd like to suggest topics for future episodes, please email [email protected]

The Professional Ethics Executive Committee had its 4Q meeting this week. Listen as Toni Lee-Andrews, Director of the AICPA Professional Ethics Division, and staff fill you in on the highlights, including what you can expect to see in 2021 as a result of PEEC's strategy and work plan.

What you'll hear about:

• Introduction
• (00:33) NOCLAR
• (01:55) Records requests
• (02:33) PEEC's three-year trategy and work plan
• (03:40) New Qs&As on pooled employer plans
• (06:06) The SEC's recent independence revision
• (07:00) Non-enforcement policy
• (07:40) Projects the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) is working on
• (10:35) Closing, including information on upcoming December interim meeting

Listen as staff of the AICPA Professional Ethics Division discuss updates to the Plain English guide to independence since 2017. You'll hear about hosting services, information system services, and new SEC guidance, among other topics.

Go to aicpa.org/plainenglishguide to access the guide.

This second of two Ethically Speaking episodes on PPP forgiveness engagements covers some questions we've had on the ethics hotline. Toni Lee-Andrews, Director of the AICPA Professional Ethics Division, takes a dive into specifics with Jim Brackens, AICPA Vice President of Ethics and Practice Quality, and Bob Dohrer, Chief Auditor of the AICPA Audit and Attest Standards team. Resources mentioned in this episode will be available soon on the show notes page at aicpa.org/ethicallyspeaking.