Intimidation

intimidation can take the form of pressure related to any of the threats that have
been covered.

當你 provide service to public 的時候，特別容易受到 client 的 pressure 影響。

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Professional Appointments

Members must consider ‘whether acceptance would create any threats to

compliance with the fundamental principles’.

• Client involvement in illegal activities (such as money laundering), dishonesty,

questionable financial reporting practices or other unethical behavior could threaten
a member's compliance with integrity and professional behavior

• A member may be approached by a potential client to undertake tasks for which

the member has neither experience nor knowledge. In this circumstance, a self-
interest threat to professional competence and due care arises because the
member does not possess the competencies necessary to properly carry out the
engagement.

Communication
• It has long been considered a matter of etiquette for a proposed successor to
communicate with their predecessor before accepting a professional appointment

• Similarly, there may be a threat to professional competence and due care if an

accountant accepts the engagement before knowing all the facts regarding the
client's business

• The extent to which the existing accountant can and should discuss the affairs of a
client with a proposed successor will ultimately depend on whether the client has
granted permission

to do so, as well as the legal or ethical requirements relating to such communications

and disclosure.
Referrals:
• Referrals occur when a client requires specialist advice in an area that is beyond the
competence of their existing accountant.

• A referral should not be seen as an invitation for the accountant who has received
the referred special assignment to ‘take over ‘the client.

• Knowing the extent of one's own skills and when the skills of a more qualified
expert are required is closely linked to the principle of professional competence

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Second Opinion

• When this occurs, the client may use this opinion to place pressure on the existing
accountant to adopt the alternative opinion favorable to the client or risk losing the
client.
• When a member is asked to provide a second opinion, the member should seek
permission from the client to contact the existing accountant and discuss the
transaction in question to ensure that the member provides a fully informed second
opinion.
• If the client refuses the member permission to communicate with the existing
accountant, the member should consider whether it is appropriate to provide a
second opinion
• In providing a second opinion, as safeguards, the member should clearly inform the
client about limitations surrounding any opinion and also provide the existing
accountant with copy of the opinion

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Custody of client assets (保管客戶資金)

• Unless permitted by law, accountants should not assume custody of client monies
or
• Where an accountant has been entrusted with money, they should make sure this
is kept separate from other assets and should only be used for its intended purpose
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Part 4 auditing, review and other assurance engagement
Independence is a fundamental component of complying with the fundamental
principles of auditing, integrity and objectivity.

(a) Independence of mind—the state of mind that permits the expression of a

conclusion assurance without being affected by influences that compromise
professional judgment, thereby engagement allowing an individual to act with
integrity, and exercise objectivity and professional skepticism.
(b) Independence in appearance—the avoidance of facts and circumstances that are
so significant that a reasonable and informed third party would be likely to
conclude that a Firm’s or an Audit or Assurance Team member's integrity,
objectivity or professional skepticism has been compromised.

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Special purpose financial statements (ss. 800,990)

• Special purpose financial statements are typically prepared in accordance with a

specific request rather than in full compliance with all accounting standards.
• It is sufficient to understand that reports that are “special purpose “need to be
stated as such and that the intended users of the reports need to be told about
modified independence requirements that may apply.

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題目 KC 2.1.2

Professional independence is a subset of which one of the following pairs of

fundamental principles?

a) Integrity and due care

b) integrity and objectivity
c) integrity and professional competence
d) objectivity and professional behavior
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大題 topic ***** 24min

Factors influencing decision making

Individual factors:
• The factor having most influence on a person's decision making is their cognitive
ability to judge the ethical rightness of a situation.
• Obeying the law and the rules also motivates many people, without much thought
as to whether those laws and rules are appropriate.
• The higher a person's moral development, the less dependent that person is on
outside influences and, hence, the more that person is likely to behave
autonomously and ethically.
• Another factor influencing a person's decision making is their development of
ethical courage. Ethical courage is the level of courage a person demonstrates in
order to make difficult decisions and act upon these decisions. (Senior accountant
usually has more ethical courage than juniors)
Organizational factors:
• Corporate culture is defined as patterns and rules that govern the behavior of an
organization and its employees.
• A culture that lacks written policies and codes of ethics and accepts dishonesty and
unethical conduct may have a strong influence on a person's ethical decision making
• Unsupportive management styles and organizational cultures as well as hierarchical
structures that are not open to upwards communication can also lead to employee
silence on issues such as supervisor and colleague competence, dysfunctional
organizational processes and working conditions.
• Top-tier management is considered the most influential factor in setting
organizational values, which in turn determines the culture that influences
accountants’ behavior.
• There is a direct and positive relationship between the strength of the
organization’s culture and the extent of that culture's influence on ethical behavior
• If top management aims to develop an ethical culture based on the principles of
the organization’s code of ethics, there must be consistency between the words and
behavior of top management and the behavioral expectations of the code.
• The major limitation in achieving acceptance of the code by employees is the belief
that the code is merely rhetoric and serves as a public relations document.

Professional factors:
•APES110
Societal factors:
•Ethical relativism (相對主義) holds that ethical behavior is relative to the norms of
one's culture.
•Therefore, a person with good ethical intentions will be influenced to act in
accordance with society’s norms.
•Relativism is premised on the belief that there is no single ethical standard.
•For the ethical relativist, there is no universal standard of right or wrong but only
the standard of a particular society. Therefore, unlike normative theories of ethics,
there is no common framework for resolving ethical dilemmas across different
societies.
• Related to the notion of cultural relativism is cultural diversity—observations of the
different values embraced by different cultures.
•Hofstede (1980 Sorting these differences along five
dimensions—masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, high/low uncertainty
avoidance, high/low power distance and short-/long-term perspective