Authors: Ken Bishop, NASBA Executive Vice President and COO and Stacey Grooms, Esq., NASBA Manager of Regulatory Affairs
Posted: July 26, 2011

 

With statutes approved in 47 of NASBA’s 55 member states and jurisdictions, and pending in most of the rest, mobility has become a reality for CPAs and accounting firms.

Without question, mobility is a game-changer. Imagine if everyone in the United States with a valid driver’s license could relocate to another state without having to be relicensed there. Mobility recognizes that most CPAs are substantially equivalent in terms of their education and experience, which allows members to practice
freely across borders.
From the outset, NASBA has been involved. We
have worked with our member boards to advise on pending legislation, as well as help them set up implementation strategies when mobility laws were passed. We have also been ramping up our own programs and services around mobility, so that we can help CPAs and accounting firms both take advantage of new freedoms and still remain compliant in the locations where they operate.
As of now, mobility has not been enacted in New York, Hawaii, California and the District of Columbia, as well as in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. However, each of those is somewhere in the process of considering the issue, and likely will move on it soon.
NASBA is helping its member boards of accountancy on multiple fronts. Education is a key focus since many CPAs want to practice across state lines, but are unsure whether or not they are eligible to take advantage of mobility. In the meantime, the boards are making sure they have regulations in place to maintain vigorous disciplinary and oversight standards.
On Thursday, we’ll look at how NASBA worked with state boards on compliance language for mobility statutes.