As a member of the AICPA, you must adhere to the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. Compliance with the code helps you retain the confidence of the public, your clients, and your peers. Failure to comply could lead to enforcement action against you and your firm and could result in a variety of sanctions.

This CPE course describes the basic tenets of ethical and professional conduct, covering the principles of ethics and explaining why the code is necessary and how it is organized. You will learn how to identify, describe, and respond to conflicts of interest, how to apply ethics rules in your tax practice, and when to maintain client confidentiality.

This course will prepare you to do the following:

• Recognize the structure and content of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, including the underlying principles.
• Apply AICPA ethics rule interpretations on integrity, objectivity, confidentiality, and advertising, including, where applicable, the conceptual framework approach.
• Recall the conceptual framework approach embedded in the code.
• Recall the obligations to exercise due professional care, comply with professional standards, and be competent in performing professional services.
• Identify acts discreditable to the profession.
• Recall the AICPA requirements applicable to tax services, including the AICPA Statements on Standards for Tax Services, IRS Circular 230, and IRS preparer penalty provisions.

• The ethical decision-making model
• AICPA Code of Professional Conduct
• The conceptual framework approach

• CPAs looking to better understand the ethics rules related to nonattest services

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT YOUR CPE CREDIT
Many states do not accept the AICPA course to meet the ethics requirement for maintaining a CPA license. Please contact your state board to determine which ethics course is required to earn your license. You must pass with a score of 70 percent or higher to earn CPE credit toward maintaining your existing license.

Note: This course may be taken using Firefox, Chrome, or Safari browsers. At this time, this course cannot be completed using Internet Explorer.