Special committee on mobility makes recommendations to ease practice across state lines.

In Dec. 2006 the Special Committee on Mobility, formed by the AICPA Board of Directors in Apr. 2006, completed its work. The committee's primary objective was to identify unnecessary barriers that prevent CPAs from easily serving their clients across state lines and that do not contribute to the public's protection. During the eight-month process, the committee received input from stakeholders and studied various approaches to allow CPAs greater mobility.

The research resulted in a recommendation for a federally mandated, state-based mobility provision. While the board agreed that the recommendation is the best alternative to the current situation, it concluded that the recommendation should not be implemented at this time. Rather, greater efforts should be placed on the adoption and implementation of proposed revisions to Section 23 (substantial equivalency) of the Uniform Accountancy Act. Those changes would eliminate a notification provision that was creating unnecessary mobility barriers. Significant efforts are now underway to enact and implement a uniform substantial equivalency provision in every jurisdiction.

For more information on the mobility issue, visit www.aicpa.org/Legislative+Activities+and+State+Licensing+Issues/ State+News+and+Info/States/.

The exposure draft proposing removal of the notification provision can be found at www.aicpa.org/download/states/UAA_Section_23_Exposure_Draft_2006.pdf.

More discussion of the profession's mobility issue will be featured in the Apr. edition of The CPA Letter.