August 29, 2014

NASBA and the Enforcement Resources Committee are pleased to announce that a new resource titled “Communicating with Federal Agencies” has been added to the Enforcement Tools section of NASBA.org. Boards of Accountancy deal with enforcement issues within their own jurisdiction, enforcement across jurisdictional borders through mobility, and also enforcement issues arising from services performed by a board’s licensee before another federal or state agency.

For example, a CPA licensed in his home jurisdiction who performs substandard work before the IRS may be disciplined by the IRS. The conduct involved in the IRS enforcement action may also provide the basis for an enforcement action by the licensing board of the home jurisdiction.

As such, it is important to facilitate the sharing of information between the Boards of Accountancy and various state or federal agencies which deal with CPAs and CPA firms. Because the process for obtaining information differs among each agency, we have created pages to specifically address the processes for the Securities & Exchange Commission, Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Labor. For each agency, this material includes an introduction to the agency, an overview of their enforcement process, a discussion of the process for sharing information with other agencies or state boards, helpful links, information request forms, and contact information.

Articles focused on communicating with federal agencies have been included in the past two editions of the Enforcement Newsletter. More tools are being created to assist boards in the federal arena. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Stacey Grooms at [email protected].