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State Board Report

June 2017

Asking the same three questions that it posed to the inhabitants of Texas in 2006, the Texas Board of Public Accountancy has learned the public still believes that someone calling him or herself an “accountant” is licensed. Hill Research Consultants, an independent polling organization, posed the following questions and received the following responses from 803 Texans:

Do you think persons or firms that refer to themselves as accountants or accounting firms in advertising to the public are required to be licensed by the State of Texas? Of the 803 adults polled in either English or Spanish: 63 percent believed both accounting firms and accountants are licensed, 5 percent only accounting firms, 3 percent accountants only and 18 percent thought no license was required. Eleven percent had no opinion.
Do you think persons or firms that advertise accounting services to the public are required to be licensed by the State of Texas? To this question 75 percent of respondents said they expected the state to license those who advertise accounting services, 18 percent did not share that expectation and 7 percent had no opinion.
Do you think persons or firms that advertise auditing services to the public are required to be licensed by the State of Texas? Again 75 percent thought they should be licensed, 17 percent did not think so and 8 percent had no opinion.

The phone interviews were conducted on May 6-11, 2017 and each was typically 4-5 minutes long. Contributors to the survey were Dr. David B. Hill, Dr. Stephen N. White and Jason Nemeck. Only those 18 and above were interviewed.

Texas Board Presiding Officer J. Coalter Baker explained that the Board had requested the poll to assist it in responding to the exposure by the AICPA/NASBA Uniform Accountancy Act Committee of proposed language that would amend Section 14 of the UAA to allow non- CPAs to use management accounting titles under specific circumstances (see www.nasba.org for the proposed language).

“Based on this evidence, we are assured that the public believes any individual or entity that publicizes that they are an ‘accountant’ or ‘auditor’ is licensed,” Mr. Baker said. “The survey found this to be true even if someone is a financial professional. I was somewhat surprised that an even greater percentage of the public believes this when compared to the earlier polling in 2006. The study has been circulated to each of the State Boards for their consideration.”

As Chair of the NASBA UAA Committee, Mr. Baker reminded the State Boards that their comments on the proposed management accountant language are needed by the UAA Committee. He reminded the Boards to submit their comments to [email protected] by September 30, 2017.

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