Sworn Auditor

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Sworn accountant is a job title. Sworn auditors have the professional task of performing audits in the field of corporate accounting , in particular book and balance sheet audits ( Section 129 (1) WPO ). The main tasks of the sworn auditor thus include the examination of the bookkeeping of a company and the examination of annual financial statements that comply with the relevant regulations .

Sworn auditors are not allowed to have annual financial statements of "large" companies i. S. d. Certify according to § 267 Abs. 3 HGB . This task is reserved for auditors ( Section 319 (1) HGB).

Since January 1st, 2005 no new "sworn auditors" have been appointed. The profession merges with the auditor profession .

history

The profession of book auditor emerged from the “Industrial Code for the German Reich” in the version of July 26, 1900. Section 36 made it possible for “authorized state or local authorities or corporations” for the first time to swear in and publicly appoint book auditors. By whom the appointment and swearing-in should be carried out, as well as the “professional and personal requirements” for exercising the profession, were only determined by various state laws. Until the 1920s, the sworn criteria remained inconsistent and the profession was a free trade. The Graduate School of Leipzig offered in 1907 for the first time the two-semester degree program graduate books auditor to.

In 1896 the Association of Berlin Book Reviewers was founded, which in 1905 became the "Association of German Book Reviewers" (VDB). This was the first association of individual auditors. While the association was initially open to all auditors, a few years later only sworn and publicly appointed auditors could become VDB members. In 1896 15 auditors were members of the VDB, in 1916 already 322 and in 1926 finally 874.

The "Ordinance on the merger in the field of economic auditing and fiduciary services" of March 23, 1943 brought together "auditors, auditing companies and sworn auditors (sworn auditors)" in the "Reich Chamber of Public Accountants". The professional title "sworn auditor" was replaced by "sworn auditor". From July 1, 1943, the use of the designation "book auditor" was prohibited.

Access to the profession was closed in 1961 with the auditor regulations . With the Accounting Directive Act (BiRiLiG) of 1986 access was made possible again. In 2004 the fifth amendment to the WPO was passed and access to the profession was closed again. Since January 1st, 2005 no new "sworn auditors" have been appointed. Previous "sworn auditors" can either take a simplified auditor exam or continue to use their professional title.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trade Regulations for the German Empire, German RGBl. Volume 1900, No. 47, pp. 871-979
  2. ↑ a b c Heike Franz: Between market and profession. Business economist in Germany in the field of tension between the educated and economic bourgeoisie (1900-1945). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 978-3-5253-5676-0
  3. ↑ Simone Rücker: Legal advice: the legal advice system from 1919 - 1945 and the emergence of the legal advice abuse law of 1935. Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149339-3
  4. ^ Ordinance on the merger in the field of economic auditing and fiduciary services , RGBl. 1943, No. 32 p. 157.