Ethics & professional responsibility

Circular 230 requires tax practitioners to exercise due diligence in preparing tax returns and representing clients before the IRS, ensuring competence and honesty. Option A is incorrect because practitioners cannot maximize client benefits through fraudulent or illegal means, and Option C is wrong because conflicts of interest must be disclosed or avoided.

Confidentiality is a core ethical duty, but the standards permit disclosure when a legal or judicial mandate compels it, because the CPA must obey the law and protect the public interest. A request from a friend lacks any legal authority, so it does not satisfy the exception and would breach the confidentiality rule.

Circular 230 requires tax practitioners to exercise due diligence in preparing tax returns and representing clients before the IRS, ensuring competence and honesty. A diagram for this topic isn't available yet — the worked example below walks the same reasoning step by step.

• !Option A is incorrect because practitioners cannot maximize client benefits through fraudulent or illegal means, and Option C is wrong because conflicts of interest must be disclosed or avoided.

Answer each from memory — you'll see instantly whether you're right and why.

Run a focused 10-question mini-mock on Ethics & professional responsibility and see it stick.