CPA firm mobility reaches important milestone

The CPA profession's campaign to allow firms to provide all services, including attest services, across state lines without having to register in each state reached a key milestone with the signing of legislation in New Hampshire. To date, 25 states have adopted CPA firm mobility, an extension of the successful individual mobility initiative.

In 2014, the AICPA and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy released the seventh edition of the Uniform Accountancy Act, which provides language to allow CPA firms to perform attest services and issue reports in states in which they do not have a physical presence without having to register the firm or paying new fees. In exchange for this privilege, CPA firms are required to meet the peer review requirements and non-CPA ownership requirements of the state in which they were offering services.

"The effort to change the New Hampshire Accountancy Act to align with the Uniform Accountancy Act was truly a collaborative effort between the New Hampshire Society of CPAs, the New Hampshire Board of Accountancy and the many CPAs across the state,” commented Kendra Bell, Immediate Past President of the New Hampshire Society of CPAs. “These changes represent our State's efforts to support the work that we do as CPAs and provide guidelines for those in our profession which protect the public. It was an honor to be involved in this collaboration."

In addition to New Hampshire, legislation in Kentucky and Michigan adopting CPA firm mobility was enacted in 2018. Legislatures in Massachusetts and New Jersey are also considering bills to adopt the UAA's firm mobility provisions.