Professional Requirements for Assurance Providers, Including Independence – Understanding Critical Code of Professional Conduct Concepts

The AICPAs Code of Professional Conduct provides guidance for ethical business conduct, as well as other potentially relevant ethical requirements from the PCAOB and international bodies. An important pillar of any Code of Professional Conduct is the rules governing independence when performing attest services, particularly when both attest and non-attest services are provided. This focus will dig deeper into important foundational principles, primarily focusing on threats to independence and how to avoid or appropriately safeguard them.

Major Topics:

• Overview of the Conceptual Framework approach to identify threats to principles of the Code of Professional Conduct
• Familiarity, self-interest, self-review and other independence threats
• General requirements and management responsibilities when performing both attest and non-attest services for the same client
• Safeguards for common independence threats