Question 28

Klein & Marin, CPA's has two offices located within 20 miles of each other. During the busy tax season period the firm hires a number of independent contractors and/or temporary employees to assist in tax preparation. Barbara is a controller at Gold Industries, an audit client of Klein & Marin, CPA's. Before becoming the controller at Gold Industries, Barbara worked in public accounting and acquired a significant amount of tax preparation experience. Barbara has asked Seth, the tax partner at Klein & Marin, CPA's, if she could assist with tax preparation at the firm during tax season and Seth, believing that this would be a great idea, agrees to hire Barbara as a temporary employee to work on weekends preparing tax returns during the busy tax season. Barbara will prepare tax returns exclusively for nonattest clients of the firm. In addition, Barbara will not work in the office that handles the audit of Gold Industries. Does the hiring of Barbara impair the firm's independence with respect to Gold Industries?

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a) No. The firm's independence is not impaired because Barbara is a temporary employee and not a permanent employee.

b) No. The firm's independence is not impaired because Barbara will not be working in the office that handles the Gold Industries audit.

c) No. The firm's independence is not impaired because Barbara will only prepare tax returns for nonattest clients.

d) None of the above are correct.