Recently, IESBA provided a formal response to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) on the public consultation: Proposed Global Internal Audit Standards. The IESBA commended the IIA’s efforts in making the proposed standards clearer and easier and agree that it is an important strategic priority and in the public interest to ensure international standards such as the IIA standards and IESBA Code remain fit-for-purpose and relevant in addressing key issues users of the standards face.
Recently, IESBA provided a formal response to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) on the public consultation: Proposed Global Internal Audit Standards. The IESBA commended the IIA’s efforts in making the proposed standards clearer and easier and agree that it is an important strategic priority and in the public interest to ensure international standards such as the IIA standards and IESBA Code remain fit-for-purpose and relevant in addressing key issues users of the standards face.
In IESBA’s response, the global ethics standards setting board highlighted the importance of a comprehensive framework, such as the IESBA’s conceptual framework, to assist internal auditors to identify, evaluate, and address threats to the principles set out in the proposed IIA standards when performing their internal audit function
The IESBA raised its concern in the use of well-established terms such as “independence” and “professional skepticism”, as these terms are generally used in the context of external audit and assurance engagements.
Various media revelations, such as the Paradise Papers and the Pandora Papers, have highlighted the important role tax intermediaries play in facilitating tax structures that contribute to billions of euros of lost tax revenue in the EU every year. To address this issue, the European Commission has announced a proposal with the objective of preventing enablers from setting up complex structures in non-EU countries for tax evasion and aggressive tax planning purposes. This initiative would complement the Unshell Directive, which sets out criteria for identifying entities that lack minimal economic substance within the EU.
IESBA Chair Gabriela Figueiredo Dias will speak at a public hearing organized by the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Tax Matters (FISC) on July 17, 2023 from 15:00 to 16:30 CEST in Brussels, Belgium.
The event, “Tackling the role of enablers involved in facilitating tax evasion and aggressive tax planning in the European Union (SAFE),” will be introduced by Paul Tang, FISC Chair. Other speakers include Olivier Boutellis-Taft (CEO, Accountancy Europe) and Ivan Lazarov (Research Associate, International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD)). A question-and-answer session with Members of the FISC Subcommittee will follow. The public hearing will help inform the European Parliament's opinion on the new legislative proposal.
“This joint APESB-IESBA Staff publication is timely and fulfills a commitment we have made to collaborate with national standard setters and others to provide helpful guidance to assist auditors in implementing and consistently applying the Code’s revised technology-related provisions,” said Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, IESBA Chair. “Over the past three years, the Board has dedicated strategic focus and significant resources to addressing the ethics and independence implications of technological innovation such as AI, blockchain, and data analytics, culminating in strengthened technology-related provisions in the Code and two comprehensive reports under Phases 1 and 2 of its fact-finding work.”
This non-authoritative publication was developed jointly by the Staff of the APESB and IESBA under the auspices of the IESBA’s Technology Task Force, initiated as part of the IESBA’s Phase 2 Technology Working Group activities. Learn more about IESBA’s technology work here.
