Abstract
Outsourcing has been criticized as a practice that destroys jobs and praised as a
way to cut costs and remain competitive. The accounting profession has utilized
outsourcing to avail itself of expertise that is not available within the firm and to
cut the cost of offering a variety of accounting and tax services. The practice has
raised some ethical questions about integrity, objectivity, disclosure and client
confidentiality. The AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee has issued
two new ethics rulings and revised a third ethics ruling to address these issues.
The new rules take effect July 1, 2005. This paper discusses these rulings and the
effect they will have on accounting practices.
Introduction
Outsourcing has been in the news a lot in recent year移动营业厅兼职暑期实践心得体会s. The general thrust of the news
reports is that outsourcing is a threat to domestic jobs and the domestic economy. Reporters and
politicians are quick to pick up on the theme. But that belief that outsourcing destroys jobs and
weakens the economy is not completely accurate.
Outsourcing is little more than an extension of the division of labor, as economists are
often quick to point out. In the move toward increased efficiency, it is part of the natural
economic process to try to find better, more efficient and less costly ways to do things.
Outsourcing is just one technique that companies sometimes use to cut costs and increase
efficiency. It is a general rule in economics that in order for an economy to grow, old jobs must be
destroyed so that new jobs can be created. Joseph Schumpeter (1984) referred to this process as
creative destruction. Outsourcing is just one manifestation of this process.
When outsourcing is applied to the provision of accounting and tax services, a new facet
of the subject must be examined. Accountants use outsourcing to avail themselves of expertise
that their firm does not possess and to cut the cost of providing certain basic services like data
processing, bookkeeping and tax preparation. But when they do that they turn over confidential
client information to outsiders. That raises some ethical issues. 本文来自优.文'论^文.网原文请找腾讯3249'114
The AICPA’s Professional Ethics Executive Committee examined the effect that
outsourcing of accounting and tax services has on integrity, objectivity, compliance with
standards and confidential client information and issued an Exposure Draft in early 2004. It
received 49 comment letters to that Exposure Draft. As a result of the feedback it received it
made some minor modifications to the Exposure Draft and issued its final ethics rulings on
October 28, 2004. These new pronouncements take effect for all professional services performed
on or after July 1, 2005. They do not apply to professional services that are performed pursuant
to agreements that are in existence on June 30, 2005 that are completed by December 31, 2005.
This paper summarizes those rulings and discusses the ethical issues involved. 2389