Comments by the Auditing Standards Committee of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association on the IESBA ED Release (August 14, 2014), Proposed Changes to Certain Provisions of the Code Addressing the Long Association of Personnel with an Audit or Assurance Client

On August 14, 2014 the International Ethics Standard Board for Accountants (IESBA) requested public comments to its Exposure Draft (ED) (IFAC 2014a) on proposed changes to the 2014 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (IFAC 2014b). The proposal aims to enhance the independence provisions of the Code to respond to threats that may be created by using the same audit firm personnel for audit or assurance engagements over an extended period of time. Among other things, the amendments would require (1) strengthened general provisions for all audits threatened by a long association of firm personnel, and (2) an increase in the mandatory “cooling-off” period, from two to five years, for the engagement partner on the audit of a public interest entity. The comment period ended November 12, 2014. This commentary summarizes the contributors' views on selected proposals in the ED. Data Availability: The Exposure Draft and related request for specific comments are available at: http://www.ethicsboard.org. Paragraph referencing in the ED is extracted from the Code, set out in the 2014 Handbook of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, available at: https://www.ifac.org/ethics/iesba-code/.