Two ICAI texts disagree about your WhatsApp broadcast

Summary

Since 1 April 2026 ICAI's Code of Ethics allows push technology for services that are not exclusive to Chartered Accountants, but a standing decision of the Ethical Standards Board says a member may not use messaging applications to make people aware of his practice. No published text reconciles the two, so a WhatsApp broadcast to non-clients about your bookkeeping or advisory work is an open question, and I would not send it until the Board answers.

The situation

A member who qualified this year asked me last week whether she could send a WhatsApp broadcast to about 400 contacts announcing her new practice: bookkeeping, payroll and GST registration help. She had read that ICAI "opened up advertising" in April. She had also read, in a different place, that ICAI still "does not allow advertising". Both headlines are wrong, in opposite directions, and her question falls between them.

A broadcast is the push channel this audience actually uses. A newspaper hoarding is not. So this is the case that matters in practice, and it is the one case the published summaries do not answer.

The rule

The Council approved the revised 13th Edition of the Code of Ethics at its 447th meeting on 12 December 2025, with amended Advertisement and Website Guidelines, in force from 1 April 2026 (ICAI's notice on the 13th Edition). ICAI's announcement permits push technology "for services that are not exclusive to the CA profession (e.g., consultancy, accounting, etc.)". For services reserved to the profession, audit and attestation above all, push promotion stays prohibited.

Several things did not change. Solicitation, testimonials, superlatives such as "best CA in the city", disparagement of other firms, banner advertisements and private awards are prohibited whatever the channel.

Then there is the second text. ICAI's own page of Recent decisions of the Ethical Standards Board, re-read today, says: "It is not permissible for a member to use Messaging Applications to send messages to make people aware about his practice." The page carries no date on any item. Nothing published says whether the 2026 carve-out supersedes it, or whether it survives as a narrower rule about messaging apps.

Where people go wrong

Treating the headline as the rule. "CAs can now advertise" drops the carve-out's condition, which is non-exclusive services only. "CAs still cannot advertise" drops the carve-out entirely. If you act on either headline you will get some real cases wrong.

Thinking the channel settles it. Most of the risk sits in what the message contains, not in how it travels. A post on your own page that carries a client testimonial or calls the firm "the most trusted in Raipur" is prohibited on a channel that is otherwise open. The Board of Discipline's finding of 31 January 2026, which ended in a reprimand of three members on 19 June 2026, was about soliciting another firm's clients. That was the plainest solicitation case, and it was enforced in 2026.

Overstating the penalty. Advertising and solicitation are misconduct under Items (6) and (7) of Part I of the First Schedule to the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. That route goes to the Board of Discipline under section 21A: a reprimand, removal for up to three months, or a fine of up to ₹1,00,000. The ₹5,00,000 fine and permanent removal quoted in many posts belong to the Disciplinary Committee under section 21B, for Second Schedule matters. Stating the larger figure frightens people and misstates the law.

Reading "grey" as "go". Where two ICAI texts disagree, the member who acted first carries the risk. Grey means write to the Ethical Standards Board and wait.

What to do

1. Decide first whether the service you are promoting is reserved to Chartered Accountants. If it is, stop: push promotion of it is still prohibited.
2. Put the announcement on your website and your own social pages, where the 2026 rules clearly reach, and keep testimonials, superlatives and comparisons out of it.
3. Hold any WhatsApp, SMS or e-mail broadcast to people who are not already clients until the ESB answers the question in writing.
4. Write to the Ethical Standards Board with the exact question: does the 2026 push-technology carve-out for non-exclusive services supersede the decision on messaging applications?
5. Keep a dated note of what you checked and when. If the rules move, you will want to show what you relied on.

The tool

I built a small checker for this after answering the same question for the third new member in a month. You pick the channel, say whether the service is reserved to the profession, and tick what the post contains. It returns permitted, prohibited or grey for each element, with the basis. On a broadcast to non-clients it now returns grey and gives both ICAI texts, rather than the "permitted" it used to show. A second tab checks an existing firm website against ICAI's 2020 advisory, and it marks the three items the 2026 Code has since opened instead of telling you to delete them. It does not read your wording, it is not an ethics opinion or a clearance, and it does not settle a grey point. The Board does that. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.

Open the can i post this page

Sources

1. ICAI — Revised Code of Ethics, 13th Edition (in force 1 April 2026) — https://www.icai.org/post/revised-code-of-ethics-13th-edition
2. ICAI announcement on advertising by CA firms, reproduced by TaxGuru (push technology for non-exclusive services) — https://taxguru.in/chartered-accountant/icai-advertising-indian-ca-firms.html
3. ICAI — Recent decisions of the Ethical Standards Board (re-read 26 September 2026) — https://www.icai.org/post/recent-decisions-of-ethical-standards-board
4. The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (First Schedule Part I Items (6), (7); sections 21A, 21B) — https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/1552/1/a1949-38.pdf
5. StudyCafe / TheTaxCorp — Board of Discipline reprimand of 19 June 2026 (as cited in the product SPEC)