Mobility Regs to Come Before Regents in October
By Allison Schiff
Posted on 10/13/11

Mobility was officially signed into law in New York state by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Aug. 17. Effective Nov. 15, the law allows for cross-border mobility for out-of-state CPAs as long as the CPA's home state is deemed by New York to have licensing requirements that are "substantially equivalent" to those in New York as outlined in Section 23 of the Uniform Accountancy Act.

The law provides for a 90-day implementation period, which "will come upon us before we realize," said Patricia A. Crecco, chair of the State Board for Public Accountancy, at its September meeting.

To handle the quick turnaround, State Board Executive Secretary Daniel J. Dustin said he will invoke the state Board of Regents to pass emergency regulations that implement the law. Draft rules and regulations have been sent to the Board of Regents in time for its October meeting.

"If [the Regents] approve the draft regulations, then they become effective Nov. 15 and we start to go through the normal administration process of publishing them in the state register for a 45-day comment period," said Dustin. "We'll assess those public comments, if any, make amendments if necessary and then go through the actual discussion and formal action by the Regents to adopt rules and regulations, probably by sometime next spring."

Peer Review

The state board meeting also included an overview of the AICPA Peer Review Program. With mandatory quality review (MQR) -- which most CPA firms with three or more accounting professionals must now undergo every three years -- going into effect in New York state on Jan. 1, 2012, the board, said Crecco, "felt it would be very beneficial" to get an overview of the AICPA's peer review process. Jim Brackens, the institute’s vice president of firm quality and practice monitoring, provided the presentation.

New York State Education Department (SED) MQR regulations specifically authorize organizations that administer peer reviews in New York state to use standards for performing and reporting on peer reviews that have been promulgated by a recognized national accountancy organization such as the AICPA. The NYSSCPA expects to apply to the SED to be an approved sponsoring organization, once the SED has finalized its sponsoring agreements. The NYSSCPA currently administers the AICPA’s peer review program.

For more information on the state’s new MQR program and how firms can prepare for it, read the NYSSCPA’s “Introduction to New York state’s mandatory quality review program.”