Using a family member as your accountant is ethical?

Konstantin Lichtenwald
3 min readDec 8, 2022
Konstantin Lichtenwald

It’s not always moral to delegate your accounting responsibilities to a family member. This might be problematic if you provide them with an enticement, have a conflict of interest, or illegally exploit sensitive information. Ultimately, you’ll want to research the morality of having a relative do your taxes.

An ethical policy should include the management of the conflicts of interest section. The policy lays forth a procedure for determining whether a transaction is potentially conflictual and lists the repercussions of doing so.

Conflicts of interest generally fall into one of two categories. A direct financial interest comes first. Different from the general public’s interest in this kind of interest. Any financial stake a lawmaker may have in a deal with a public body must be disclosed.

A tight economic connection is the second. This indicates that the legislator receives a large advantage from another commercial enterprise. This might happen even if the lawmaker has no personal financial stake in the other group.

By state and area, a conflict of interest is defined differently. A conflict of interest is a family member working for a rival company.

A love connection might cause a conflict of another kind. A conflict of interest exists if an employee and boss are romantically involved.

There are a few things to bear in mind whether you work as an accountant professionally or wish to provide your skills. To be ethical, you must abide by all laws and rules that apply to your profession. It would be beneficial if you were also knowledgeable about ethical matters.

The IESBA has added additional provisions on inducements to its Code of Ethics. The modifications are intended to increase clarity and make the Code easier to understand. A new “intent test” under the updated Code, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, forbids inducements that wrongly affect the recipient’s behavior. The intent test was developed to help professional accountants make the best decisions possible.

According to the IESBA, an enticement is any action or conduct that can affect another person’s behavior improperly. Understanding that this does not necessarily imply that you are participating in unethical behavior is crucial. There are many different kinds of inducements, including gifts and hospitality.

If you feel your employer is doing it improperly, whether you are an employee or a third party, you should report it. Whistleblowing is the term for this. You have two options for reporting something: either directly to the appropriate party or to your employer. If you don’t disclose the misbehavior, you might get in trouble or lose your job.

The most important human resource for disclosing misconduct in businesses is an accountant. A sample of accountants in the sector was questioned to ascertain their intentions to engage in internal and external whistleblowing. These findings imply that internal whistleblowing by accountants is more common than external whistleblowing. However, there is no proof that the likelihood of raising the alarm and the severity of the retribution suffered are associated.

A partial least squares structural equation model was created to assess the measurement’s accuracy. The model showed that while the strength of retribution decreased the mean tendency to blow the whistle, the amount of retaliation did not affect it.

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Konstantin Lichtenwald

Konstantin Lichtenwald has over 15 years of finance and accounting experience, with expertise in corporate compliance, accounting, and financial management.