UMUC ACCT635 midterm exam

Question

Multiple Choice-4 Points Each

Please select the correct response and reflect it on a Word Document.

Submit a Word Document with your letter response for each question.

1. The AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct establishes:

a. The rules of conduct for structuring and conducting audits and other attestation engagements

b. The rules of conduct for conducting audits, but no other forms of attestation

c. The rules for resolving technical judgments in achieving a fair presentation of financial statements

d. The normative rules of ethical behavior that guide professional accountants

2. The AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct expresses professional standards:

a. That are mandatory minimum rules of behavior that all members of the AICPA must comply with

b. That, when violated, constitute crimes under most, if not all, state accountancy licensing statutes

c. That are aspirational goals, but yet are rarely achieved by most professional accountants

d. That establish worldwide standards that all professionals accountants must, at minimum, comply with

3. The AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct expressly applies to:

a. All CPAs who are compelled by state law to join the AICPA

b. All CPAs who have valid CPA licenses in good standing

c. All CPAs who have valid CPA licenses, even if their licenses temporarily are suspended due to misconduct

d. All CPAs who voluntarily join the AICPA

4. An unethical act:

e. Is always illegal as well

f. Is not necessarily illegal

g. Must, at minimum, violate a government regulation

h. Is determined for the accounting profession by the FASB

5. If a CPA violates one of the Principles of the AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct, the CPA:

a. Will never be subject to disciplinary action by the AICPA

b. May lose the right to practice accounting for a period of time unless the violation was justified

c. Definitely will lose the right to practice accounting for a period of time unless the violation was justified

d. May or may not lose the right to practice accounting, depending on the severity of the violation

6. The AICPA and IFAC Codes of Conduct are:

a. Substantially similar, but not identical

b. Identical, except that the AICPA Code applies to Certified Public Accountants and the IFAC Code applies to other professional accountants

c. Identical, except that the AICPA Code applies to accountants licensed in the United States and the IFAC Code applies to professional accountants licensed outside the United States

d. Identical, except that the AICPA Code applies to individual accountants and the IFAC Code applies to accounting firms and other organizations of accountants

7. A focus on the importance of categorical imperatives distinguishes:

a. Utilitarianism from consequentialism

b. Deontology from utilitarianism

c. The philosophies espoused by Kant from deontology

d. The philosophies espoused by Mill from utilitarianism

8. A focus on achieving the least overall harm for members of society is best reflected in the philosophy of:

a. Deontology

b. Consequentialism, but not necessarily utilitarianism

c. Utilitarianism, but not necessarily consequentialism

d. Emanuel Kant

9. A real-world difficulty of applying utilitarianism is that:

a. It can be difficult to identify all stakeholders affected by a decision

b. It can be difficult to measure utility

c. Some benefits, such as the enjoyment of privacy, are difficult to quantify

d. All of the above

10. The disclosure of conflict minerals in SEC filings is historically significant because:

a. The Dodd-Frank Act revolutionized depletion accounting rules for natural resource properties

b. Investors now will be better able to evaluate the risks of firms that are highly dependent upon minerals from war-torn areas of the world

c. Investors receive superior information that better enables them to hold companies accountable if they engage in socially irresponsible behavior

d. Investors now will be better able to evaluate the foreign currency risks to which global corporations are subject

11. Which of the following is, or are, commonly accepted definitions of CSR?

a. A corporation fully complies with all applicable laws and regulations

b. A corporation engages in activities that are both socially responsible and profit-enhancing

c. A corporation engages in activities that are socially responsible, even if they are not profit-enhancing

d. All of the above

12. If a firm engages in activities that simultaneously are profit-optimizing and socially responsible:

a. Economists that adopt the stakeholder theory, but not the shareholder theory, will agree with its conduct

b. Economists that adopt the shareholder theory, but not the stakeholder theory, will agree with its conduct

c. Economists uniformly will criticize its claims of social responsibility as being highly unlikely, if not impossible

d. Its behavior is commendable in accordance with both the shareholder and the stakeholder theories

13. The key difference between bribery of a public official and bribery of a corporate employee is that:

a. Only bribery of a public official is ever unlawful under anti-bribery criminal laws

b. Only bribery of a public official is unlawful under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

c. Only bribery of a public official can ever result in a prison sentence in the United States

d. Bribery of a corporate employee may exclusively be enforced through a civil action for damages by the corporation and never by government prosecution

14. Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a company can be held criminally liable:

a. If it is more probable than not that it committed bribery

b. In a lawsuit filed by a government other than the United States

c. If it engaged in “willful blindness” to acts of bribery that furthered its economic interests

d. Only if documentary evidence confirms the existence of bribery

15. A CPA wishes to accept a commission from one client for marketing the client’s software product to other clients served by the CPA. The CPA:

a. May do so as long as the CPA discloses this commission to these potential software purchasers and the potential purchasers are not audit clients

b. Always may do so as long as the CPA discloses this commission to these potential purchasers

c. May do so as long as the CPA discloses this commission to these potential software purchasers and the potential purchasers are not tax return preparation clients

d. Never may do so

16. A facilitation payment:

a. Is never lawful under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

b. Is lawful under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as long as it does not involve the exportation of merchandise from the United States

c. Is lawful under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as long as it does not involve the importation of merchandise into the United States

d. Is always lawful under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

17. If a CPA charges a contingent fee in connection with providing management consulting services to a non-audit client, the CPA’s fee arrangement is:

a. Permissible always

b. Permitted only if the fee arrangement is expressed in a clear writing signed by the client

c. Permitted only if the CPA is not a member of the AICPA

d. Never permissible

18. If a CPA charges a contingent fee in connection with providing professional services to a review client, the CPA’s fee arrangement is:

a. Permissible always

b. Permitted only if the fee arrangement is expressed in a clear writing signed by the client

c. Permitted only if the fee is reasonable in amount

d. Never permissible

19. The Fraud Triangle refers to:

a. The three acts of accounting deception that led to Enron’s downfall

b. The three alternative causes of fraud in large organizations

c. The three alternative causes of financial fraud in business enterprises

d. The three elements that collectively must be present for fraud to occur

20. According to the Fraud Triangle, which the following is one of the requisites for fraud to occur?

a. The perception of an opportunity for ill-gotten financial gain

b. The existence of sound justification for a person to receive greater financial rewards

c. The existence of a clear-cut opportunity for ill-gotten financial gain

d. Employment in a sensitive financial capacity in which peers reap greater financial rewards than the employee contemplating fraud receives

21. Which of the following is not an element of The Fraud Triangle?

a. A person’s attitude

b. A person’s willingness to violate the Due Care Principle

c. The presence of pressures to achieve specified performance levels

d. The perceived opportunity for financial gain

22. A CPA observed another CPA engaging in an act that was undeniably discreditable to the profession. The Acts Discreditable Rule of the AICPA:

a. Requires the observing CPA to report this violation to a designated officer of the AICPA

b. Requires the observing CPA to report this violation to a designated officer of the applicable state’s accountancy licensing board

c. Expressly states that a CPA has no duty to report the observed misconduct

d. Does not express an opinion on whether the observing CPA does, or does not, have a reporting duty

23. Under the Advertising and Other Forms of Solicitation Rule of the AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct, a CPA may not engage in advertising that is:

a. Undignified

b. Unprofessional

c. Deceptive

d. All of the above

24. The name of a CPA firm may:

a. Include the name of a founder who is retired, as long as he or she remains an active member of the AICPA

b. Include the name of a founder who is deceased

c. Not include the name of a CPA unless that CPA is a member in good standing of the AICPA

d. May include the name of a non-CPA without needing to identify the non-CPA as being, in fact, a non-CPA

25. The Acts Discreditable Rule states that the following acts are discreditable:

a. An accountant’s failure to file her own tax return by April 15, even if the accountant obtains a permitted extension of time from the taxing authority

b. The late filing of a tax return for a partnership client that results in at least one of the client’s partners incurring late filing penalties

c. A CPA’s nonpayment of taxes due and owed to a taxing authority

d. A CPA firm’s failure to file its partnership tax return, even if all of its partners individually have filed their tax returns on time