What Do You Mean That’s Unethical?
December 9, 2026
1:00-2:30 PM Eastern
Member Fee: $100
Non-Member: $150
Ethics sessions have a reputation for being dry: a recitation of rules you sit through to check a box. This session is different. Some of the riskiest decisions in a SALT practice do not feel like decisions at all. They feel like a regular Tuesday at the office. Grabbing supplies from the office closet, rounding an expense number, or doing a quick off-the-clock favor using firm resources may not register as an ethics question, especially when everyone around you seems to do the same things without a second thought. That is exactly what makes this conduct dangerous.
This session takes a hard look at the small, ordinary habits that professional ethics codes may treat as violations and traces how quickly they can escalate. Grounded in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and the IPT Code of Ethics, three SALT-specific scenarios illustrate the pattern: an undisclosed referral fee, a “quick? nexus opinion that drifts into legal territory, and a credits deal complicated by a thank-you gift to a public official. Because SALT professionals include in-house professionals, consultants, and outside counsel, the session will also highlight where these three codes agree and where they differ.
Participants will gain a sharper eye for ethical questions that do not announce themselves as such and a practical approach for addressing them before they compound.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, the participants will be able to:
• Identify conduct that professional ethics codes treat as a violation, even when it appears routine or widely tolerated.
• Apply core duties from the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and the IPT Code of Ethics to SALT-specific scenarios.
• Recognize how small, seemingly defensible decisions can compound into violations involving conflicts of interest, contingent fees, confidentiality, or dealings with government officials.
• Apply a practical framework to identify and correct ethical drift before it becomes a professional, legal, or reputational problem
Speaker:
Melissa J-L Myers, CMI
Director, Sales & Use Tax Practice Leader
Cirrus Advisors
Lutherville Timonium, MD