Adapted from Principles of Accounting, 11th edition, 2011, Needles, Powers, Crosson. Cengage (South-Western) Publishing, p. 46, C 4.  (20 Points)

Discuss the ethical choices in the situations below.  In each instance, describe the ethical dilemma, determine the alternative courses of action, and tell what you would do.

1. You are the payroll accountant for a small business.  A friend asks you how much another employee is paid per hour.

2. As an accountant for the branch office of a wholesale supplier, you discover that several of the receipts the branch manager has submitted for reimbursement as selling expenses actually stem from nights out with his spouse.

3. You are an accountant in the purchasing department of a construction company.  When you arrive home from work on December 22, you find a large ham in a box marked “Happy Holidays – It’s a pleasure to work with you.”  The gift is from a supplier who has bid on a contract your employer plans to award next week.

4. As an auditor with one year’s experience at a local CPA firm, you are expected to complete a certain part of an audit in 20 hours.  Because of your lack of experience, you know you cannot finish the job within that time.  Rather than admit this, you are thinking about working late to finish the job and not telling anyone.

5. The accounting firm for which you work as a CPA has just won a new client, a firm in which you own 200 shares of stock that you received as an inheritance from your grandmother.  Because it is only a small number of shares and you think the company will be very successful, you are considering not disclosing the investment.