http://www.aidpblog.org/understanding-the-code-of-ethics-in-the-accounting-profession
This article is mainly about what ethics is and how important accounting ethics is. Ethics concerned with right and wrong, good or bad. It is either a set of principles held by an individual or the discipline that studies those ethical principles. Every person has an ethical set of beliefs or ethical principles. For example, most people have some belief about whether practices such as abortion, capital punishment are good or bad, right or wrong. Human actions are not the only subject matter for ethics. Besides actions, ethics examines and evaluates social practices. When we say, “Stealing is wrong,” we are evaluating a social practice.
The ongoing accounting scandals call attention to the crisis in ethics. The issue of ethics usually comes up with any kind of profession that handles something of value, such as money. “To prevent these professionals from carrying out inappropriate behavior, based on the standards stipulated by the organization to which the professional is a part of, all are required to read and fully understand these codes before they practice their profession.” The codes of ethics for accountants do not differ with the ethical standards observed by other professionals in various fields. It is focused more on how the data is handled by an accountant given the nature of information they are tasked to handle. Without this code of ethics from which accounting professionals, it can be difficult for clients to build trust on these service providers in terms of ensuring confidentiality of their financial information. Acquiring knowledge and skills required to becoming a certified public accountant is therefore not enough. You must also learn to conduct yourself in the highest level of professionalism and ethics to avoid legal troubles while doing your job.
Accountants have a number of ethical responsibilities – to themselves, their families, their profession, and the clients and company for which they worked. Integrity is an essential characteristic for a CPA in the performance of professional services; it should not be subordinated to personal gains and advantages.
I think not lying is the foundation of being an ethical accountant. It is important to note that lying is not synonymous with saying something false. Telling a lie involves more than simply getting things wrong and not telling the truth. The essence of lying is found in its purpose, which is to alter another’s behavior. Lying involves deliberately misrepresenting something to another person to get that person to act in a certain way, a way the liar suspects the person would not act if that person knew the truth. Some might argue that if a person doesn’t benefit from a nondisclosure, as in some social occasions, it is not lying. For example, when your friends ask how you are, you don’t have to disclose that you feel miserable. They probably don’t want to hear it. That kind of social nondisclosure is acceptable because you are not trying to change another’s behavior to benefit personally from it.
In summary, the accounting profession was developed to give a true and accurate picture of the financial affairs of organizations.
Xitong He 