US auditors face tax services ban
Public comment sought on tax-banning measures
Proposals aimed at restricting the amount of tax work US auditors can do have
been put forward for public comment by the Securities & Exchange Commission.
The proposed new rules drafted by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
would see auditors banned from providing three types of tax services to clients.
These would include tax services involving contingent fee arrangements; tax
marketing, planning, and advice involving aggressive interpretation of
applicable tax laws and tax services to certain corporate managers who serve in
financial reporting oversight roles at an audit client.
The new rules are aimed at improving auditor independence and also include
guidance on ethics standards, which have been revised from the original proposal
where auditors would have had to provide audit committees with engagement
letters for proposed services, WebCPA reported.
The new proposal now says auditors must provide audit committees with a
description of proposed services, rather than the actual engagement letters.
