Are accountants ethical?

[webberg]

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/comm...comment-645703

Jump in people.

[ladymuck]

Some are, some aren't.

Due to the way the law is pretty much not fit for purpose I think they do have to walk a fine line. It explains why it's often difficult to get a straight answer out of them and why my accountant will always phone me when I have a tricky question rather than reply with his answer.

Then there's all this nonsense about the spirit of the law vs the word of law. If the law was intended to be implemented/interpreted in a particular way then it should have been written that way. To say someone who hasn't broken the law, but instead interpreted it in a valid way no-one thought of, should be strung up as being morally destitute is frankly unacceptable.

[RokkieContract]

Some are, some aren't.

Due to the way the law is pretty much not fit for purpose I think they do have to walk a fine line. It explains why it's often difficult to get a straight answer out of them and why my accountant will always phone me when I have a tricky question rather than reply with his answer.

Then there's all this nonsense about the spirit of the law vs the word of law. If the law was intended to be implemented/interpreted in a particular way then it should have been written that way. To say someone who hasn't broken the law, but instead interpreted it in a valid way no-one thought of, should be strung up as being morally destitute is frankly unacceptable.

If you are referring to tax matters then as you can see from the trust and loan fiasco you get all sorts. The law also makes it difficult as there are always grey areas. Some accountants are more 'risky' than others, I personally ask the client how risk averse they are and explain risks of certain actions. Sometimes its better to be safe for small amounts of cash than try and penny pinch. I get lots of offers from aggressive tax schemes but don't pass this onto the clients as I don't believe some of the stuff I am being told. Other accountants will probably offer these schemes to their clients and let the client judge.

[northernladuk]

From the comments...

Fair play to Bradley Wiggins; when I was on drugs I couldn't even get on my bike, let alone win the Tour de France on it.

[piebaps]

In my experience an accountant and a tax advisor are often very different animals. A big accountancy firm is likely to have an in-house tax team, while the smaller operations try to be jack of all trades and this can give what appear to be inconsistent approaches to the same problems. Like any profession, there are likely to be unscrupulous operators however these are few and far between and the vast majority of the accounting world are ethical.

The various schemes discussed in these pages are the bastard offspring of legal eagles and tax advisors operating at the boundary of ethics, rather than accountants per se - IMHO.