Certified Public Accountant

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Certified Public Accountant ( CPA ), the US professional title for US accountants , so professionals (especially external) accounting who have passed the CPA exam. Only those who are actively licensed in one of the US states are allowed to use the title, all others have the designation 'CPA-inactive'.

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

development

Due to the increasing internationalization of accounting, especially since the 1990s , based on the accounting regulations according to US GAAP , the CPA award is increasingly being sought in Germany and other countries outside the United States. It often has a meaning as an additional qualification for European auditors or tax consultants or is used as an independent professional title. There are around 1000 Certified Public Accountants in Germany (as of 2004).

In particular, the EU- wide conversion of the accounting of listed companies to the IFRS based on US GAAP on January 1, 2005 makes the CPA award more important.

activity

According to the current regulation, CPAs in Germany are not allowed to issue an auditor's certificate for statutory annual audits. Their function is in particular to participate in the preparation and auditing of international annual financial statements and to mediate between European and Anglo-Saxon financial circles. You can e.g. B. independently on behalf of American auditors auditing US-GAAP annual financial statements of German companies that are subsidiaries of American companies and are included in their consolidated financial statements . There are also a small number of self-employed CPAs who offer tax advice on American taxes in Germany. Many CPAs are self-employed as German auditors and look after the upscale, internationally oriented medium-sized companies or are employed by the global Big Four auditing companies or are partners of these companies. There are also CPAs who work in Germany as business consultants or in academia. Ultimately, the (also then valid) CPA license serves some employees in the industry as special proof of their knowledge of US GAAP and IFRS as well as US tax and business law.

exam

You can take the CPA exam in any state in the United States . In addition, the exam is only offered in the following selected countries: Japan, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Kuwait (as of November 29, 2012).

The title CPA is awarded by the individual US states after passing the US-wide uniform examination. Differences in detail exist with regard to the regulations of the individual US states for admission to the CPA exam. Depending on the state, the following requirements may be required for admission to the CPA exam:

  • Study at a university with 150 credit hours . It is irrelevant whether these hours were taken at a university or a technical college. It is also not necessary to take a German WP exam.
  • A certain number of semester hours per week in the areas of accounting , auditing (corporate accounting and auditing), business law (commercial law) and business (BWL), these hours and the examination results achieved are then carried out by an institution such as B. the WES transferred to the American level and then converted into "credits".
  • The failure rates are very high depending on the job.
  • A certain minimum age.
  • US resident status is definitely not required.
  • A minimum length of stay in the relevant state is also not required
  • After successfully passing the exam, there is also a so-called ethics test.
  • Depending on the respective federal state, there is still the obligation to undertake annual further training (usually a total of 120 hours in three years), similar to that of German auditors. If you are not employed by a WP company, then obtaining the required CPE (Continuing Professional Education) hours can turn out to be quite time-consuming and costly, especially since IDW courses are usually not (depending on the respective State Board of Accountancy) to be counted on. Since 2013, face-to-face courses have also been offered in Germany where CPE credits can be earned.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CPE at IDW