Candidate Costs Rise

Candidate Costs Rise
Becoming a CPA in New York

By Forrest Whitesides

Continued from the Home Page

This fee must be paid to the New York State Board of Public Accountancy (NYSBPA) before applying for and taking the computer-based test (CBT). The application and testing fees to sit for the CBT in New York are $125 and $547, respectively, and are paid to the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) via CPA Exam Services (CPAES), a department of NASBA.

“The licensure fee for CPAs in New York has not changed since the late 1980s. It’s been $345 for a number of years now,” said Dan Dustin, executive secretary of the NYSBPA.

Just prior to the April 2004 transition from a paper-based exam to the CBT, an exam candidate paid $250 to take the test. Today, it costs $672 to take all four sections of the exam in New York, which includes an application fee and a fee for each exam section. One advantage to the CBT is that it can be taken during four testing windows, and each of the four sections may be taken independently. Under the paper-based exam, the test was offered only twice a year, and candidates were required to sit for the entire exam at once.

The original pricing schedule agreed upon by NASBA, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and exam administrator Thomson Prometric was based on an expected volume of test candidates per year, according to an AICPA report. The first year of testing under the new CBT system saw a decline of almost 37 percent in the number of candidates taking the CPA examination, resulting in a 57 percent decline in the number of examination sections taken, according to a report issued by the CBT Volume Task Force, a group composed of executives from AICPA, NASBA, Thomson Prometric and others in the profession. After the first year of CBT testing did not yield the expected number of candidates, Prometric’s testing administration fee increased proportionally—up 16 percent over the initial fee. Prometric is a subsidiary of the Thomson Corporation, a major partner in CPA2Biz, the AICPA’s official distribution arm.

Application Fees Vary

While the base CBT testing fee of $547 is constant from state to state, the exam application fee paid to CPAES varies. For example, New York’s CBT application fee is $125, while New Jersey’s fee is $225 and Connecticut’s fee is $235.

“There are a variety of reasons why the application fee varies from state to state,” said Joe Cote, director of operations at NASBA. “In some cases, a state board will collect part of their licensure fees through the CBT exam application fee. In other cases, a state board may want a specialized report on exam results, and that costs more money for us to implement.” Cote added that volume also plays a role in determining the application fee. States with a higher volume of test takers will have lower application fees, he said, because the cost to process the applications is spread out over more applicants.

For candidates taking the test in New York, the entire CBT application fee goes to CPAES. “The New York State Board does not get any of the money paid to CPAES for the exam application fee,” explained Dustin.

The Society recently created a CPA Exam Task Force to address various issues regarding the CBT, including reported problems with testing facilities, pass/fail score reporting, glitches with registration and transcript validation, and cost-related issues.

“The Society is concerned that cost may be a factor in the decline of candidates taking the exam,” said Bob Kawa, chair of the CPA Exam Task Force. “Our recently formed committee will be looking to both candidates and firm administrators for opinions not only on the cost issue but also on issues regarding grading, administration and exam content. We will attempt to help CPA candidates achieve greater success in their goal of passing the test.”