ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the major groups that rely on corporate financial reports. It discusses the ethical duties of senior executives regarding financial reports. The chapter discusses the ethical duties of non-accounting managers with regard to accounting and financial reports. Financial reporting is the face of accounting that many managers and most outsiders see. In the United States, quarterly results are very closely watched by executives, financial analysts, and others. The United States Internal Revenue Code (IRC) is an immensely complex set of laws, regulations, and interpretations governing federal taxation. Senior managers are responsible both for establishing and maintaining accounting systems and for personally initiating. In our consideration of the ethical obligations of non-accounting managers with regard to accounting and financial reporting, there is one category of decisions that we have not yet considered. At first blush, a utilitarian argument might maintain that, in some cases, greater good can be obtained by making or allowing such entries than by stopping them.
