Cornerstone

Twelve Years and Out: Seasoned Accountants Join the Exodus.

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No longer a problem confined to just new talent or middle managers.

Where they go: The biggest slice, 19 percent, goes into finance, followed by business and operations. (via Live Data)

By CPA Trendlines Research

In a startling shift, thousands of highly experienced top-level accountants are leaving the field mid-career, challenging the long-held view that the staffing crisis is limited to new graduates or middle managers.

RELATED: Middle Managers Getting Squeezed | Explaining the Talent Shortage in One Big Chart | Salary and Compensation Outlook for Small CPA Firms | Gen AI in Accounting: Epic Transformation, or Overheated Hype? | MORE: The Talent Crisis | DOWNLOAD The National Pipeline Advisory Group Report

For many accountants on the edge of transition, the coming years will determine whether the profession can reinvent itself to retain the trust of its workforce or continue to lose ground as one of America’s fundamental professions.

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Student Accounting Enrollment Shows Third Year of Recovery | Cornerstone

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But

New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows a 12 percent increase in fall 2024 accounting enrollment compared to fall 2023. The increase amounted to an additional 28,672 students.

Total undergraduate accounting enrollment for fall 2024 was 267,278 students, the highest accounting enrollment reported since fall 2020 (263,092 students) and just shy of the pre-pandemic fall 2019 enrollment (275,963 students).

Understanding the Inflection Points
in Number of CPA Exam Candidates

CPA Trendlines Cornerstone Report

The key factors contributing to the ups and downs – mostly downs in the last three decades – of CPA exam candidates reflect broader trends in the economy, regulatory environment, and demographic landscape.

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A Brief History of the US Income Tax, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Tax, Accounting and CPA Profession | Cornerstone

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Cornerstone Report

By CPA Trendlines Research

The Internal Revenue Service has a long and complex history dating back to the early days of the United States. The story of the IRS intersects at critical points with the development of the tax, accounting and CPA profession.

MORE Cornerstone Reports here

The current federal income tax can be traced back to the Revenue Act 1913, passed after the states ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. The act provided that taxes on individual taxpayers would be imposed beginning in 1913 on incomes of $3,000 and up.

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