Oklahoma CPAs Start Voting Today on Non-CPA Ownership

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.

Posted on October 16, 2009