Aicpa Comparison
The following three standards: The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice, and the Statement on Standards for Tax Services compare in many ways, which will be discussed in this paper. However, out of the three the two that compare the most are the AICPA guide and the IMA guide. The AICPA version goes into much more depth and description about each point in comparison to the IMA guide. Both the AICPA and IMA discuss the importance of integrity, and that avoiding conflict of interest is critical. This is discussed in the public trust section of the AICPA, and in the integrity section of the IMA. They also both discuss objectivity, stating that it is important to be impartial and honest while making decisions. One notable difference between the AICPA and IMA is the AICPA deeply discusses how members need to remain independent in their practices, while the IMA does not discuss it at all. The reasoning for this could be that Independence may be more valued in public accounting than non-public accounting. In comparison to the AICPA and IMA, the Statement on Standards for Tax Services is much more detailed. Similar to IMA, SSTS states that a member should follow the laws that are in place, and list steps that should be taken if there are no written laws or standards. The AICPA and IMA both state how members should be loyal to the profession, and the SSTS also follows this. It explains how members should not only keep the taxpayers interest in mind, but also the interest of tax services. All of the standards seem to believe that this is very important. As mentioned earlier, set standards are another topic that is discussed in all three of these standards. The only difference is the set of standards that these documents refer to. The AICPA refers to GAAP, the SSTS refers to tax laws, and the IMA refers to laws that are in place for Management Accountants. Also, the AICPA website provides a lot of information on GAAP,
Cited: http://www.aicpa.org/Research/Standards/CodeofConduct/Pages/default.aspx http://www.aicpa.org/RESEARCH/STANDARDS/TAX/Pages/default.aspx http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Statement%20of%20Ethics_web.pdf