Question 1

John is the finance director at a RLD Ltd, a wine making business with 500 employees. The company has been under a lot of pressure recently, with increases to Chinese tariffs on Australian wine, and a general downturn in the economy due to the pandemic all harming the projected financial outlook for RLD. John knows that its important for the future of the business that the annual report shows a healthy financial performance, especially as RLD has a large loan which requires them to maintain a current ratio of 1.8:1. Adding further pressure is the situation where most of the Senior Management at RLD have performance bonuses tied to profits. The CEO of RLD recently approached John and told him that he should leave a large outgoing bill off this years report and include it next year. The CEO said that as the the report goes out on 30 June, it would only involve moving the bill back by a couple of weeks. The CEO also informed John that a poor financial outlook could threaten jobs at the company, including that of the finance director (John).

Required:

a) What are the ethical issues facing John?

b) Advise John of appropriate courses of action from the teleological ethical perspectives of 'ethical egoism' and utilitarianism. Justify why these are based on 'ethical egoism' and utilitarianism.

c) Recommend a course of action for John based on deontological theory. Outline why this course of action is based on deontological ethics.

d) Which ethical theory do you think leads to the most appropriate course of action for John? Justify your position.

Question 2

a) Define both the socially constructed view of accounting history and the socially constructing view of accounting history. Illustrate your answer with reference to key events from the history of accounting.

b) Critically evaluate which view of accounting history you think best explains the development of accounting regulation in the 20th Century.