Management Fraud, Audit Risk, and Evaluation of Internal Controls
1. Do Professional standards allow a company's auditors also to provide tax services and retain their independence?
2. How have provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley Act limited a public company's choice of auditors?
3. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of permitting auditors to provide non audit services {such as tax services} to clients?
4. From a conceptual standpoint, how do the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley related to nonaudit services affect perceptions of the auditors' independence?
5. Assume that your firm was auditing General Electric in 2000 and was recommending an adjustment to its financial statements that reduced net income. Based on the fees paid to your firm in 2000, what incentive{s} might your firm consider in insisting upon this adjustment? How would your firm's incentive{s} differ after 2004?