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You might have thought this was settled in the 1990′s.
But Oklahoma remains one of six states left in the U.S. that still (technically, at least) bans non-CPAs from owning a piece of a CPA firm.
Today the Oklahoma society of CPAs will be emailing a survey to members to see if they want to bring their state’s rules into the mainstream. In a straw poll of directors and committee chairs, 40 out of 45 voted in favor of lifting the ban.
Under the proposed change:
- A majority of the ownership of any CPA firm must be CPAs.
- Non-CPA owners must be active participants in the firm; passive ownership is not permitted.
- A licensed CPA must be designated and identified to the state board as the individual responsible for registration of the firm.
- The partner/owner in charge of attest services must be a licensed CPA.
The state society says small to mid-sized firms will benefit from the change because it will allow them to “increase the scope of services to their clients” and “offer attractive partnership positions to non-CPA specialists in areas such as information technology or estate planning.”
But it’s always been the small and mid-sized firms who have traditionally opposed opening up CPA firms to non-CPAs, fearing larger firms were more able to take advantage of the strategy.
Only Alaska, Hawaii, New York, Connecticut and Delaware remain in Oklahoma’s camp.
Source: OSCPA
