Friends, felons, & tax fraud

Q1 Social Sciences

Journal of Accounting Education Pub Date : 2025-02-06 DOI:10.1016/j.jaccedu.2025.100950

Carolyn Conn, Linda Campbell

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Abstract

This case study is designed for use in an income tax, accounting ethics, or fraud examination course at the undergraduate or graduate level. The focus is on a graduate student (the protagonist) who is near graduation and is wrestling with an ethical dilemma after being asked to provide a character reference for a longtime friend. This student recently passed one of the three core sections of the CPA examination and at the end of the current semester will begin a career as a tax accountant. The recent message from a high school classmate creates a conflict between the student’s personal and professional ethics and causes her to evaluate the importance of her own goals against loyalty to the friend who has confessed to multiple felonies.

In evaluating the friend’s crimes, the student explores aspects of the fraud triangle and how it might have influenced the friend’s actions. The friend had confessed to wire fraud, bank fraud, and submitting fraudulent loan applications to financial institutions related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP under the CARES Act¹). The case provides a context for discussing multiple aspects of the PPP as an example of a well-intended government program that was susceptible to fraud, analyzing worker classification (employees vs. contract labor/independent contractors), considering the role of tax policy in economic stimulus, and the tradeoffs between providing timely economic relief and crafting carefully designed legislation.

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来源期刊

Journal of Accounting Education Social Sciences-Education

CiteScore

4.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Accounting Education (JAEd) is a refereed journal dedicated to promoting and publishing research on accounting education issues and to improving the quality of accounting education worldwide. The Journal provides a vehicle for making results of empirical studies available to educators and for exchanging ideas, instructional resources, and best practices that help improve accounting education. The Journal includes four sections: a Main Articles Section, a Teaching and Educational Notes Section, an Educational Case Section, and a Best Practices Section. Manuscripts published in the Main Articles Section generally present results of empirical studies, although non-empirical papers (such as policy-related or essay papers) are sometimes published in this section. Papers published in the Teaching and Educational Notes Section include short empirical pieces (e.g., replications) as well as instructional resources that are not properly categorized as cases, which are published in a separate Case Section. Note: as part of the Teaching Note accompany educational cases, authors must include implementation guidance (based on actual case usage) and evidence regarding the efficacy of the case vis-a-vis a listing of educational objectives associated with the case. To meet the efficacy requirement, authors must include direct assessment (e.g grades by case requirement/objective or pre-post tests). Although interesting and encouraged, student perceptions (surveys) are considered indirect assessment and do not meet the efficacy requirement. The case must have been used more than once in a course to avoid potential anomalies and to vet the case before submission. Authors may be asked to collect additional data, depending on course size/circumstances.