South Carolina State Board of Accountancy Violation Cases of 2008
In order to become a Certified Public Accounting (CPA) one must take and pass the CPA exam issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In order to receive licensing, one must follow the guidelines of their respective state in order to obtain a license from that state’s Board of Accountancy to get into practice. With any practice there are rules and guidelines that a person must follow. The Code for CPAs is in place in order to ensure that licensees practice accounting without any problems or discrepancies. As we all know, with any law, rule, or guideline there are loopholes and people that try to work their way around the rules or blatantly not follow them. In the state of South Carolina, there are many people and firms that violate the Code. When the Code is violated, the state board will hold a hearing and decide on the matter and issue a penalty. The following explains a few of these violations made in the year 2008 and the penalties issued by the South Carolina State Board, along with an opinion on the decisions made.
On January 9th, Jerry Hanes went before the Board for violating SC Code 40-2-100. Mr. Haynes was operating a business using the term “Accounting” without a license to do so. His business, Haynes Business Accounting and Tax Services, “cease and desist from the performance of any act which would constitute the unlicensed practice of accounting.” This penalty is fair in my opinion. A person or business cannot provide accounting services without a state issued license. Therefore, ordering Mr. Haynes to stop all unlicensed accounting activities is fair.
The same judgment was given to a few other people and companies in th...
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... and should have received a harsher punishment.
As stated earlier, all laws and rules have loopholes; you just have to know what to look for. The saying “all laws are meant to be broken” is evident in the above cases. The Code of Professional Conduct has rules and guidelines for CPAs to follow while in practice. Those who do not follow the Code sometimes get away with it, but in other cases they do not. That is when offenders come before the State Board and the Board’s members decide how to handle the violation. In some cases, the penalty matches the violation and in some cases they do not. Either way all CPAs should try their best to follow the Code so that the public’s confidence in them is not tainted.
Works Cited
"South Carolina Board of Accountancy." LLR. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. .
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