The State of Ethics in Business and the Accounting Profession

Nicholas J. Mastracchio, PhD, CPA, Carlos Jiménez-Angueira, PhD, CPA, and Ildiko Toth, CPA

In BriefThe public's trust in accounting professionals is critical, and ethics education is one way to strengthen that trust. Since the audit failures of the early 2000s, there has been an ongoing discussion about how to teach ethics in college and in continuing education for CPAs.However, only five states require a course in ethics for college students. Just as few call for ethics education, while three other states mandate ethics education either through integration in courses or other means. As for continuing education for CPAs—most states have some ethics requirements, but many just require a periodic review of state and AICPA rules.This article looks at the state of ethics in business and the accounting profession, reviews ethics education requirements in the United States, and questions the framework of what constitutes an ethics course.