In small groups, consider the following situations. In your discussions, consider the SEC's four basic principles regarding independence. Using only those principles, discuss and reach a conclusion as to whether any of the following four situations, representing services performed by a CPA for an audit client, violate audit independence principles. If you believe that the services can be performed if safeguards are in place, state the safeguards:

a. A CPA firm prepares the client's tax return.

b. For an audit client, a CPA performs business risk analysis with a focus on economic and business risk rather than accounting risks. The intent is to help the company better identify and manage its risks. Management makes all decisions about risk priorities and approaches to mitigating the risk.

c. A CPA performs marketing research, but only for nonaudit clients. However, it does have a significant number of audit clients who are in the same industry for which it performs marketing research.

d. A client board member performs consulting work for the consulting division of the CPA firm. However, the board member has no relationship with the auditors except that of being a board member.