Accountants.

Existing law establishes education, experiential, examination, and other qualifications for licensure as a certified public accountant and requires an applicant to provide documentation that the applicant completed specified units in prescribed courses. Existing law requires the board to admit an applicant to the certified public accountant examination before the applicant completes the education requirements if the applicant is enrolled in a degree-granting university, college, or other institution of learning and is within 180 days of completing prescribed education requirements. Existing law requires the board to adopt guidelines for accounting study to be included as part of the educational requirements for licensure.

This bill would, operative on January 1, 2027, enact an alternative set of qualifications and requirements for a license, including a requirement to have completed an accounting concentration of courses from a board-recognized United States institution of higher education, instead of evidence of completion of specified units in prescribed courses for the education qualifications, as described above. The bill would make those revised qualifications and requirements an alternative to the above-described existing law provisions until January 1, 2029, at which time the bill would repeal those existing law provisions.

Existing law authorizes the board to issue a certified public accountant license to an applicant who is the holder of a certified public accountant license issued under the laws of any state if the board determines the standards are substantially equivalent to the standards established in this state.

This bill would instead authorize the board to issue a certified public accountant license to an applicant who holds a license from another state with comparable licensure requirements, as defined.

Existing law authorizes an individual whose principal place of business is not in this state and who has a license to practice public accountancy from another state to practice in this state under a practice privilege without obtaining a license from the board if the individual, among other things, satisfies one of specified requirements, including that the individual has continually practiced public accountancy as a certified public accountant under a licensed issued by another state for at least 4 of the last 10 years.

This bill would delete the provision requiring the individual to satisfy one of those specified requirements to practice under a practice privilege.

Existing law requires individuals licensed in another state as a certified public accountant to file a specified notification form with the board and pay a fee as a condition of exercising a practice privilege if the board determines that allowing the individual to practice would violate the board's duty to protect the public, and specifies factors the board is required to consider in making that determination.

This bill would require the board, in making that determination, to also consider whether the other state has comparable licensure requirements. The bill would require an individual who has their principal place of business in a state that the board determines does not have comparable licensure requirements, to indicate on the notification form whether they have met one of 2 alternative sets of requirements. The first would be having continually practiced public accountancy as a certified public accountant under a license issued by any state for at last 4 of the last 10 years. The other set of requirements would be having passed the Uniform CPA Examination and completed education that included a baccalaureate degree or higher with an accounting concentration and at least one year of general accounting experience.

Existing law authorizes a licensee to sign reports on attest engagements if, among other requirements, the licensee completes 500 hours of experience satisfactory to the board in attest services.

This bill, among other changes to those requirements, would authorize the board, by regulation, to require the completion of specified job tasks associated with performing attest services.

The bill would make other conforming, technical, and nonsubstantive changes.