On 23rd July 2019 CPA Ireland adopted the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards), issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) in April 2018.
The 2019 Code is completely rewritten under a new structure and drafting convention that makes the Code easier to navigate, use and enforce. The Code incorporates several substantive additions and revisions, including:
- An enhanced and more prominently featured conceptual framework.
- Clearer and more robust provisions pertaining to safeguards that are better aligned with threats to compliance with the fundamental principles and to independence.
- Strengthened independence provisions addressing the long association of personnel with an audit or assurance client.
- New and revised sections dedicated to members in business relating to:
- preparing and presenting information; and
- pressure to breach the fundamental principles.
- Clear guidance for members in public practice that relevant members in business provisions set out in Part 2 of the Code are applicable to them.
- Strengthened provisions for members in business and members in public practice pertaining to the offering or accepting of inducements, including gifts and hospitality.
- New application material to emphasise the importance of understanding facts and circumstances when exercising professional judgment.
- New application material to explain how compliance with the fundamental principles supports the exercise of professional scepticism in an audit or other assurance engagement.
Members are reminded to familiarise themselves with the New Code
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