October 13, 2009

The AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC) has begun a project to create a single source of easy-to use guidance on AICPA ethics and independence matters. The project will entail restructuring the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (Code) and combining its guidance with related guidance that is currently not in the Code to create an AICPA ethics and independence Codification.

Primary Objectives/Benefits

  • Topically organized; simpler, easier, and more intuitive to use; improve compliance with ethical requirements.
  • Include guidance that currently resides outside the Code (e.g., basis for conclusions and informal positions of the ethics division staff).
  • Improved research capability via use of technology.

Other Benefits

  • Significant synergies, including reduced time and effort in identifying differences with
  • the IFAC Code as part of PEEC’s convergence efforts.
  • Mapping exercise will identify where in the Codification a previous rule is located;
  • whether redundant guidance has been eliminated.
  • Ability to sort and aggregate portions of the Codification to obtain a specific view (e.g.,
  • all sections pertinent to auditor independence)

Timing and Process

  • The project is scheduled to run 3 years (2009-2011).
  • Substantive changes to the AICPA’s independence rules are not anticipated as part of the
  • Codification project.
  • State board input on this project will be sought.
  • Any substantive changes as a result of convergence efforts will follow full due process.