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CPA Ethics

Why CPAs CPE Ethics Education Should Be Your Top Priority

Imtiaz Munshi, CPA

Published on: Mar 15, 2023
Last Updated: May 13, 2025
5430

Today, Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) play a vital role in maintaining trust in financial reporting. They aren’t just responsible for numbers—they’re expected to act with honesty, fairness, and good judgment. That’s why most state boards require CPAs to complete Continuing Professional Education (CPE) each year, including a set number of ethics hours.

Ethics CPE isn’t just about meeting requirements. It helps CPAs stay sharp, make sound decisions, and remember the importance of working with integrity and accountability. With constant changes in financial rules, technology, and risk, having a strong ethical foundation is more important than ever.

Why Ongoing Education Matters for Professional Compliance?

Accounting professionals are responsible for ensuring transparent and accurate financial reporting. Work with honesty to safeguard the interests of investors, creditors, and common people, especially when navigating ethical dilemmas.

A small, unethical accounting practice led to the bankruptcy of Enron, costing a $74 billion loss to investors. ASBA and AICPA, to deal with such unethical acts, in 2020 updated the model of UAA to reflect the requirements of teaching accounting ethics for CPA (Certified Public Accountants). A number of states welcomed the new move.

Note: A few states, like South Dakota, Louisiana, Georgia, and New Jersey, do not require ethics credit. However, other states require ethics CPE credits for license renewal.

What are the CPA CPE Ethics Requirements?

CPE requirements for CPAs vary by state. While ethics is compulsory, some states like South Dakota, Louisiana, Georgia, and New Jersey haven’t made ethics a mandatory CPE requirement.

Find your state-specific ethics requirement here>>

The AICPA code of professional conduct framework binds its members to act in the best interest of the public and the profession.

Ethics is just one part of your ongoing CPA CPE credit requirement. Discover how to meet all your learning goals effectively in our Ultimate Guide: What is CPE Credits.

The Ethical Dilemma

Accountants are expected to uphold the utmost integrity. The ethical dilemmas of the real world often challenge accounting ethical principles. These are not black or white, and accountants need to find the gray area.

Understand the notion, navigate through the challenges, and consider every aspect carefully. Overcoming such scenarios requires a strong understanding of rules and regulations and the ability to make sound decisions. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct expects accountants to strongly follow the CPA CPE Ethics.

What are the Key Components in Ethical Conduct?

1. Integrity

Accountants are responsible for avoiding conflicts of interest to maintain the highest ethical standards. They should approach financial statements independently and unbiasedly. Those CPA and accountants must be cautious when providing assurance services such as auditing. The paramount act will build the client's trust and maintain the dignity and credibility of their profession.

2. Objectivity

Accounting professionals provide unbiased advice and make unbiased decisions. A CPA's objectivity should be protected in tax or consulting services since conflicts of interest may compromise it.

3. Confidentiality

Accounting firms can access sensitive, personal, and financial information about their clients. They must respect their privacy and confidentiality. Providing assurance services requires a CPA to ensure accurate and authentic information.

4. Competence

Stay updated and relevent with the industrial updates to maintain your professional expertise through continuing education. Keep their knowledge and skills up to date to provide accurate and reliable advice. The key to ensuring client satisfaction is providing high-quality services and advice.

5. Professionalism

Maintain the integrity of your industry and conduct yourself with professionalism. Treat others with respect and courtesy. Follow the code of conduct and keep personal matters separate, and work for the best service to your clients.

The AICPA clearly states its code of professional conduct. However, many accountants fail to follow it due to a lack of knowledge of accounting ethical standards and sometime self-discipline. This is where ethics courses play their crucial role.

How the Accounting Ethics Course Plays a Crucial Role?

The course is the roadmap, a guide for professionals on maintaining integrity, objectivity, and confidentiality. Maintain professionalism and stay upskilled to provide the best service to your clients.

It helps accounting professionals navigate through the theoretical as well as real-world ethical challenges in the field. A deep insight into safely dealing with gray areas, overcoming the challenges of maintaining a professional reputation, and legal compliance.

Get State-Specific CPAs CPE Ethics Courses on MYCPE ONE

Get NASBA-approved (Registry ID: 143597) courses to improve your ethical aspects to deal with real-world challenges and meet your State-Specific ethics requirements.

State	Courses	Reg. Links	Credits
Georgia	Georgia-Specific Ethics Made Interesting	Click here	4 CPE
Texas	Guidebook to Ethical Behavior: Ethics Course for Texas	Click here	4 CPE
Virginia	2025 Virginia-Approved Professional Ethical Considerations	Click here	2 CPE
New York	Ethics for CPAs in New York	Click here	4 CPE
Washington	Washington CPAs CPE ethics 2025	Click here	4 CPE
View your state>>

Ethical Problems a Professional Faces

Accountants frequently face situations where business scenarios and management objectives conflict with the principles of ethical conduct. Business decisions are often made in situations where no ruling or clear guidance is available.

There are situations where accountants may face conflict of interest, streamlining the business concerns and balancing compliances and internal as well as external management pressure.

So, accountants are in a position to act smartly, think rationally, and make ethical decisions to avoid negative consequences.

Ethical Problems Accountants Face in the Real World

Businesses meet their earnings target artificially by accelerating revenue, artificially inflating the values, and manipulating financial statements.

To improve financial performance, often violating GAAP, accountants may misclassify and manipulate the numbers. Falsify business expenses, overvalued assets, or undervalued liabilities fraudulently to misrepresent and attract investors.

Businesses encourage the use of loopholes and strategies like underreporting income, inflating deductions, or using offshore accounts to evade tax.

For Personal or financial interest, accountants may compromise their professional judgment.

Enron in the early 2000s was using the same strategy to hide its debt. The role of its Auditor, Arthur Andersen, who compromised ethics, ultimately led to bankruptcy.

Role of Ongoing Education

Ongoing learning plays a crucial role in guiding professionals' ethical behavior. Ethics are essential, and CPAs and accounting professionals working in the USA must earn specific ethics credits to complete their CPE requirements. CPAs must stay current with their continuing professional education to thrive in the ethical world.

1. Stay Informed about Ethical Best Practices

CPE courses include ethical modules, which provide insight into the latest ethical guidelines and best practices. Hence, the ethics CPE requirement for CPAs is important!

2. Develop Critical Thinking Skills

The CPE program facilitates critical thinking and analytical skills, enabling CPAs to make informed decisions. When faced with complex ethical dilemmas and the gray zone, better know how to manage the conflict.

3. Enhance Professional Judgment

With ongoing education, accountants equip themself with the latest framework and case studies. As a result of CPE, CPAs can ensure that ethical considerations are paramount and can navigate the situations and challenges.

4. Address Evolving Regulatory Landscape

Integration and incousion of new tech. like AI, blockchain, Data analysis, and ML streamlines accounting, but also comes with ethical challenges. It leverages CPAs to adapt to changing ethical requirements and stay updated on the evolving regulatory landscape.

5. Building a Culture of Ethics

Accounting bodies like AICA and CIMA, as custodians of professionals, set ethics as a part of ongoing education. This lead to establish a clear code of conduct and create an ethical workspace.

Conclusion

CPAs must adhere to strict ethical standards to maintain clients' trust and confidence. They are essential for organizations as they ensure financial stability by upholding their ethical responsibilities. To meet future challenges with unwavering ethical conduct, CPAs must maintain continuous education and ethical awareness.

Fostering a culture of ethics and integrating it into your organization is the way to pass it on as a legacy. Only learning and completing the ethical requirements for the sake of meeting your compliance is not what it means. Passing the legacy of ethical conduct of behaviors, you leave a footprint behind for the aspiring professional to follow.

FAQs

Professional organizations that provide updates on ethical standards and industry best practices offer continuing professional education (CPE) programs, workshops, and seminars for CPAs.

CPAs must investigate suspected financial reporting fraud. They should inform the client's management or board about their findings. They may also need to speak with legal experts. Reporting to relevant regulatory bodies might be necessary.

In every reporting cycle, Kentucky CPAs must earn 2 ethics CPE credits. Check out Kentucky CPA CPE Package at MYCPE ONE and complete your ethics credits in one place.

In every reporting cycle, Missouri CPAs must earn two ethics CPE credits. Check out Missouri CPA CPE Package at MYCPE ONE to complete your ethics credits in one place.

New York CPAs must earn four ethics CPE credits in every reporting cycle. Explore the New York CPA CPE Package at MYCPE ONE!

About the Author

Imtiaz Munshi, CPA

CFO, AZSTEC LLC

The author Imtiaz Munshi is a Certified Public Accountant and CFO at Azstec, LLC. He is Business Strategist, Tax Planner, Entrepreneur and Advisor to "HNEs" (High Net Worth Entrepreneurs).

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Why CPAs CPE Ethics Education Should Be Your Top Priority

Why Ongoing Education Matters for Professional Compliance?

What are the CPA CPE Ethics Requirements?

The Ethical Dilemma