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SUE WAS PUZZLED AS TO WHAT COURSE OF ACTION TO TAKE. SHE HAD RECENTLY STARTED her jobwith a national CPA firm, and she was already confronted with a problem that could affecther future with the firm. On an audit, she encountered a client who had been treating paymentsto a large number, but by no means a majority, of its workers as payments to independentcontractors. This practice saves the client the payroll taxes that would otherwisebe due on the payments if the workers were classified as employees. In Sue’s judgmentthis was improper as well as illegal and should have been noted in the audit. She raised theissue with John, the senior accountant to whom she reported. He thought it was a possibleproblem but did not seem willing to do anything about it. He encouraged her to talk to the partnerin charge if she didn’t feel satisfied.She thought about the problem for a considerable time before approaching the partner incharge. The ongoing professional education classes she had received from her employer emphasizedthe ethical responsibilities that she had as a CPA and the fact that her firm endorsedadherence to high ethical standards. This finally swayed her to pursue the issue with the partnerin charge of the audit. The visit was most unsatisfactory. Paul, the partner, virtually confirmedher initial reaction that the practice was wrong, but he said that many other companiesin the industry follow such a practice. He went on to say that if an issue was made of it, Suewould lose the account, and he was not about to take such action. She came away from themeeting with the distinct feeling that had she chosen to pursue the issue, she would have createdan enemy.Sue still felt disturbed and decided to discuss the problem with some of her co-workers.She approached Bill and Mike, both of whom had been working for the firm for a couple ofyears. They were familiar with the problem because they had encountered the same issue whendoing the audit the previous year. They expressed considerable concern that if she went overthe head of the partner in charge of the audit, they could be in big trouble since they had failedto question the practice during the previous audit. They said that they realized it was probablywrong, but they went ahead because it had been ignored in previous years, and they knew theirsupervisor wanted them to ignore it again this year. They didn’t want to cause problems. Theyencouraged Sue to be a “team player” and drop the issue.
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