Ethics for New York CPAs – 4 Hours

A CPA is challenged in today’s work world not only to serve a client or employer, but also to protect the public interest by ensuring transparency in financial reporting and the fair administration of the tax laws. In balancing those two duties, a CPA can find themselves in a genuine ethical dilemma.

This four-hour course works through that tension in three stages. Part I sets out the ethical frameworks that underpin professional judgment — consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics — and shows how a CPA’s conclusion can shift depending on which lens is applied. Part II turns to the rules themselves: the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct alongside New York’s own framework, being Article 149 of the Education Law, the Commissioner’s Regulations at Part 70, and the Rules of the Board of Regents at Part 29. Part III closes with putting ethics into action — the rationalizations that precede misconduct, the warning signs of an organization on the verge of ethical collapse, and what it takes to rebuild moral character after a lapse.

The New York material covers the role of the Board of Regents and the Office of the Professions, the composition and powers of the State Board for Public Accountancy, and practice privileges for CPAs licensed elsewhere. It works through the conduct rules that carry the most practical weight for a New York licensee: the retention and maintenance of work papers, including the seven-year retention period and the forty-day deadline for assembling a complete set; the additional competency requirements that apply before a licensee may perform audit, attest or compilation services; the obligation to maintain an active registration while using the CPA title; the reportable events that must be disclosed to the Department within forty-five days; and the commission and referral fee rules, including the specific form and content of the written disclosure a client must sign. Mandatory continuing education is covered under Education Law § 7409 and Regulations § 70.9.

On the AICPA side, the course works through integrity and objectivity, independence and the seven threats framework, subordination of judgment, conflicts of interest, knowing misrepresentation, client advocacy, confidential client information, contingent fees, records requests, and acts discreditable to the profession.

Throughout, the material is built on case studies drawn from real events, including WorldCom, HealthSouth, the fraud at Buca Inc., the 2007–2010 mortgage crisis, Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Scott London insider-trading case at KPMG, and the embezzlement at Collin Street Bakery. The emphasis is on determining the course of action that upholds the intent of the rules, not merely technical compliance with them.

Three appendices reproduce the source law in full: the New York Education Law, the Commissioner’s Regulations, and the Rules of the Board of Regents.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Assimilate the rules of ethics that apply to CPAs and professional accountants licensed in New York.
2. Ascertain the intent of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and the New York Rules, Regulations and Education Law in the performance of professional accounting services, as distinct from mere technical compliance with those rules.
3. Apply ethical judgment in interpreting the rules and determining the public interest, recognising that the public interest should be placed ahead of self-interest even at the cost of a job or a client.
4. Analyze and apply the New York law that pertains to CPAs licensed to practise in the state of New York, including the role of the Office of the Professions, the New York State rules on ethics covering retention and maintenance of work papers, competency requirements for attest and compilation services, failing to maintain an active registration when using the title or designation, reportable events, and commissions and referral fees including mandatory disclosure, together with public expectations of a CPA’s responsibilities and the enforcement of the rules on ethics.