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The Business Council supports this legislation that makes necessary updates to the state’s criteria for becoming a certified public accountant.
Importantly, this legislation is consistent with the new draft of the Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA), which is model legislation developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). The UAA, jointly published by AICPA and NASBA, provides state legislatures and Boards of Accountancy with a national model that creates an optional path to licensure while maintaining the license’s integrity and protects the public while providing flexibility in response to stakeholder demand and protecting mobility for individual CPAs.
Efforts are underway to ensure that all 50 states update their accountancy statutes over the next several years to align with this new UAA model language. Similar legislation has already passed in six states (Hawaii, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Virginia) and is pending in nearly 20 more.
As was the case of Chapter 701, Laws of 2023 which modernized CPA ownership standards to be consistent with virtually all other states (and which passed with broad, bipartisan support), it is imperative that New York update its licensure law to remain competitive, to benefit the profession and its in-state clients, and for the benefit of New York colleges and universities who could lose students to other states to take advantage of the four-year pathway to licensure.
Under current New York law, a CPA candidate must complete 30 hours of college coursework beyond 120 hours required for a bachelor’s degree, plus one year of relevant experience. That additional time and expense makes the current criteria difficult to achieve for many, especially lower income candidates.
This legislation authorizes one year of relevant work experience to substitute for the additional 30 hours of college coursework (i.e., 120 hours of coursework and 2 years of relevant experience), which provides an effective and equitable alternative pathway. Importantly, CPA candidates using this pathway remain subject to other related state laws and regulations.
New York and the U.S. are facing a growing shortage of CPA, while their professional services remain critical to business and governmental operations. For example, according to the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) annual trends report, “The number of unique CPA Exam candidates declined from 72,271 in 2021 to 67,335 in 2022,” the lowest number in several decades.
By authorizing an alternative, more attainable pathway to qualifying to sit for the CPA example, this legislation will make this in-demand, well-paying career path open to more candidates, helping to reduce the critical shortage of certified public accountants.
This legislation will also help keep New York and New York firms remain competitive for CPA talent, as additional states pass alternative pathway legislation.
For these reasons, The Business Council strongly supports adoption of S.6891/A.7613.