Comments Awaited on Model Rules

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State Boards and other interested parties are being asked to review changes to two sections of the Uniform Accountancy Act’s Model Rules: First, a change to Rule 5-7 to prepare the way for continuous Uniform CPA Examination testing has been exposed with a February 11, 2019 comment deadline. Second, to be released for comment on January 2, are changes to most of Article 7 on peer review with a comment deadline of June 30, 2019.

The proposed change for Rule 5-7 is now on the www.nasba.org and the changes for Article 7 will be on the website on January 2. Comments on both proposals should be sent to [email protected].

The last major changes made to Article 7 accompanied the fifth edition of the Uniform Accountancy Act, released in 2007. The eighth edition of the UAA was released in January 2018. A need for updating these Model Rules to reflect current practice became obvious as they currently reference what is required for a Board’s Compliance Assurance Program, when nearly all states have switched over to the AICPA’s Peer Review Program, and to coordination of national oversight through the NASBA Compliance Assurance Review Board, which has not been established. Other changes include the addition of a new Rule 7-6 “Approved Peer Review Sponsoring Organizations, Programs and Peer Review Standards” and significant reshuffling, deletion and additions of Model Rules pertaining to peer review. Given the extent of these changes, the NASBA Board of Directors has set an extended comment period that goes beyond the conclusion of the June 2019 Regional Meetings, to enable inter-Board discussion.

Based on feedback from NASBA’s Compliance Assurance Committee, the AICPA’s Peer Review Oversight Task Force will present at the January AICPA Peer Review Board’s meeting further revisions to its guidance on Peer Review Oversight Committees (PROCS) contained in Chapter 3 of its Peer Review Oversight Handbook, eliminating overly prescriptive language. The AICPA has announced: “Moving forward, we will more closely involve an advisory panel of State Board of Accountancy Executive Directors and NASBA Compliance Assurance Committee members to serve as additional avenues of feedback prior to releasing any guidance changes impacting State Boards.”

In the exposure draft to be released in January by the NASBA UAA Committee, Rule 7-7 “Peer Review Oversight Committee” contains guidance on who may serve on a PROC and the PROC’s function.