Standards & Compliance
The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct
The professional rules we live by, and what they mean for the people who trust us with their numbers.
The Standard We Answer To
Almost any business can tell you it is honest. A CPA firm is held to something stronger: an enforceable code. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct binds every member of the Institute, and it is the standard against which we can be disciplined if we fall short. At its core is a conceptual framework that requires us to identify threats to our objectivity, weigh them, and apply safeguards that reduce them to an acceptable level. When no safeguard can, we decline or withdraw. Out of that framework come the obligations you actually feel: integrity and objectivity, so you get straight answers including the unwelcome ones; independence on attest work, so our opinion carries weight; and competence and due care, so we take on only what we can do well.
In tax practice, Treasury Circular 230 adds a further layer, governing the diligence we owe, your right to your own records, and the level of support a return position must have. There is a good deal more behind the scenes, and we apply all of it. Ask about any of it, and we will explain it plainly.