What it carries

8 obligations in this collection carry a stated penalty. Each is given with its basis, because a figure without the provision behind it cannot be checked and should not be relied on. Where an instrument sets a ceiling as the greater of a fixed sum and a share of turnover, both limbs are shown. Nothing here is an assessment of any organisation's exposure: what a supervisor does in a particular case turns on matters no reference page can know.

The ceiling, and what sets it

• IESBA Code 110.1 A1(b)(iii)Objectivity

  No Code fine; a compromised fundamental principle is a matter for the adopting member body

  Objectivity is one of the five fundamental principles. A member body that has adopted the Code investigates alleged breaches and may reprimand, fine, impose conditions on practice, or withdraw membership and the practising certificate. IESBA imposes nothing and no regulator enforces the principle as such, so a person who is not a member of an adopting body is not reached at all.

• IESBA Code 120.12 A2Bias

  No Code fine; a framework failure is pursued by the adopting member body

  Section 120 is applied by every professional accountant, and failing to identify and address a threat the Code has already named is a matter for the body that adopted it — investigation, then reprimand, fine, conditions on practice, or withdrawal of membership and the practising certificate. No regulator enforces the conceptual framework, and it does not reach a person who is not a member of an adopting body.

• IESBA Code R113.1, 113.1 A3, R113.2 and R113.3Professional Competence and Due Care

  No Code fine; competence failures are pursued by the member body that adopted the Code

  Professional competence and due care is a fundamental principle. A member body that has adopted the Code may investigate a failure of it and impose reprimand, fine, conditions on practice, or withdrawal of membership and the practising certificate. There is no regulator behind the principle and no monetary ceiling anywhere in the Code. Where the same work founds a civil claim, that exposure arises under general law and is neither created nor measured by the Code.

• IESBA Code R114.1, R114.2, 114.3 A3 and R114.4Confidentiality

  No Code fine; disciplinary exposure through the adopting body, and separate statutory exposure

  The Code sets no monetary penalty. Enforcement runs through the IFAC member body that has adopted it, which may investigate and impose sanctions running from reprimand and fine to conditions on practice and withdrawal of membership and the practising certificate. Data-protection law may attach to the same facts through a different instrument and a different enforcer; that exposure is not created by the Code and is not measured by it.

• IESBA Code R220.4, R220.5 and R220.6Preparation and Presentation of Information

  No fine under the Code; the exposure is personal and runs through the adopting body

  R220.4 and R220.5 are mandatory provisions, and a breach is investigated by the IFAC member body that has adopted the Code rather than by a regulator. Sanctions run from reprimand and fine to conditions on practice and withdrawal of membership and the practising certificate. Where the same information reaches a market or a lender, separate statutory and contractual consequences may attach under other instruments; the Code neither creates nor measures those.

• IESBA Code R220.8Using the Output of Technology

  No fine under the Code; a disciplinary matter for the member body that adopted it

  The Code is issued by IESBA and has force through adoption by IFAC member bodies. IESBA runs no disciplinary process of its own, and no regulator enforces the Code as such. A member body that has adopted it investigates alleged breaches and may reprimand, fine, impose conditions, or withdraw membership and the practising certificate. It does not reach a person who is not a member of an adopting body.

• IESBA Code R220.9 and R220.10Addressing Information that Is or Might be Misleading

  No Code fine; the disciplinary exposure runs to the individual accountant

  Where a member body concludes that an accountant remained associated with information they believed misleading, the matter proceeds through that body’s disciplinary process: reprimand, fine, conditions on practice, or withdrawal of membership and the practising certificate. It reaches the person rather than the employing organisation, and an employer’s approval of the figure does not discharge a provision that turns on what the accountant then believes. Statutory liability for the reporting itself sits under other instruments.

• IESBA Code R230.3 and R230.4Acting with Sufficient Expertise

  No Code fine; the member body that adopted the Code determines the consequence

  Both provisions are mandatory, and a breach — misleading an employer as to expertise, or performing duties in the face of an unaddressed threat — is a disciplinary matter for the adopting body. Sanctions run from reprimand and fine to conditions on practice and withdrawal of membership and the practising certificate. Nothing in the Code creates an employment consequence for declining, and nothing in it protects an accountant from one.