Updated July 23, 2015
CPA Accountant Ethics in Chicago Illinois
Ethical responsibilities of CPAs and tax accountants to the client
We have an ethical responsibility to
- protect our clients
- produce financial statements and tax returns to the best of our ability after performing a proper due diligence
- avidly represent our clients with zeal, in the event of audit or other administrative settings, before the Internal Revenue Service, The Illinois Department of Revenue, or other governmental agencies +maintain our independence
- maintain the highest ethical standards
If you feel that your CPA or Tax Accountant is not completing work under acceptable CPA accountant ethics,then you should change accountants immediately.
Let’s use an example to illustrate how dangerous this can be for you the client. An accountant does your tax return. You complain about the amount of the refund saying that its $2,000 less than you traditionally receive. Without evidence, reason, or ethics, your accountant adjusts the numbers so that you receive the refund you expect. He signs the return. You sign it, and receive your refund. How can this hurt you?
If you are audited, then once the fraud is determined you will then owe additional tax that you would have paid in the first place plus, interest, and penalty. If this amount is large enough, then the government will probably open up two or more additional years to see if the same fraud occurred in those years. If it did, you will owe additional tax, interest, and penalty on those years as well.
If the fraud is of an extreme or material manner, then the penalties could include jail time.
Another example which is extremely common is that you go to one of these neighborhood magicians that prepare your returns without evidence, due diligence, or ethics. Being the unethical practitioner that they are, he does the same thing for the rest of his clients. One of the other clients gets audited and the IRS discovers fraudulent intent performed by the accountant. Since the practitioner signed all of the returns and put his social security number on all of them, it is easy for The Government to determine which returns he completed. At that point they can send out audit letters to all of the returns that he completed. Now you are being audited, and what we described in the first example is happening to you.
Only there’s one big difference. The auditors aren’t guessing. They know where to look based upon what the practitioner did on the other returns. Having an accountant with a lack of CPA accountant ethics work for you is very dangerous. Usually any money you may receive from fraudulent returns will go back to the government times two or three once you get caught, not including audit defense fees.
If you are having problems with your CPA Accountant Ethics in Chicago Illinois or have issues with your accounting in general, we would love to help. I enjoy hearing from my readers, and can be contacted at
Chris@AccountingSolutionsltd.com
Additional Accounting Articles and information on my firm can be found at
www.AccountingSolutionsLtd.com
Chris Amundson is the President of Accounting Solutions Ltd., a full service public accounting firm of Certified Public Accountants and Enrolled Agents handling the bookkeeping, accounting, tax preparation, and audit representation needs of Businesses, Estates, Trusts, and Upper Income Individuals.