Florida Senate - 2019 SB 1252
By Senator Gruters
23-02045A-19 20191252__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to public accountancy; amending s.
3 473.302, F.S.; revising a definition; amending s.
4 473.312, F.S.; revising the percentage of total hours
5 of accounting-related and auditing-related continuing
6 education required by the Board of Accountancy for
7 license renewal; amending s. 473.313, F.S.; updating
8 provisions relating to license reactivation; amending
9 s. 473.322, F.S.; prohibiting a person from performing
10 or offering to perform certain services without a
11 license; revising criminal penalties; providing an
12 effective date.
13
14 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
15
16 Section 1. Subsection (8) of section 473.302, Florida
17 Statutes, is amended to read:
18 473.302 Definitions.—As used in this chapter, the term:
19 (8) “Practice of,” “practicing public accountancy,” or
20 “public accounting” means:
21 (a) Offering to perform or performing for the public one or
22 more types of services involving the expression of an opinion on
23 financial statements, the attestation as an expert in
24 accountancy to the reliability or fairness of presentation of
25 financial information, the utilization of any form of opinion or
26 financial statements that provide a level of assurance, the
27 utilization of any form of disclaimer of opinion which conveys
28 an assurance of reliability as to matters not specifically
29 disclaimed, or the expression of an opinion on the reliability
30 of an assertion by one party for the use by a third party;
31 (b) Offering to perform or performing for the public one or
32 more types of services involving the use of accounting skills,
33 or one or more types of tax, management advisory, or consulting
34 services, by any person who is a certified public accountant who
35 holds an active license, issued pursuant to this chapter, or who
36 is authorized to practice public accounting pursuant to the
37 practice privileges granted in s. 473.3141, including the
38 performance of such services by a certified public accountant in
39 the employ of a person or firm; or
40 (c) Offering to perform or performing for the public one or
41 more types of service involving the preparation of financial
42 statements not included within paragraph (a), by a certified
43 public accountant who holds an active license, issued pursuant
44 to this chapter, or who is authorized to practice public
45 accounting pursuant to the practice privileges granted in s.
46 473.3141; by a firm of certified public accountants; or by a
47 firm in which a certified public accountant has an ownership
48 interest, including the performance of such services in the
49 employ of another person. The board shall adopt rules
50 establishing standards of practice for such reports and
51 financial statements; provided, however, that nothing in this
52 paragraph shall be construed to permit the board to adopt rules
53 that have the result of prohibiting Florida certified public
54 accountants employed by unlicensed firms from preparing
55 financial statements as authorized by this paragraph; or
56 (d) Offering to perform or performing for the public one or
57 more types of services involving any attestation engagements in
58 accordance with the Statements on Standards for Attestation
59 Engagements.
60
61 However, these terms shall not include services provided by the
62 American Institute of Certified Public Accountants or the
63 Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, or any full
64 service association of certified public accounting firms whose
65 plans of administration have been approved by the board, to
66 their members or services performed by these entities in
67 reviewing the services provided to the public by members of
68 these entities.
69 Section 2. Paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section
70 473.312, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
71 473.312 Continuing education.—
72 (1)
73 (b) Not less than 10 25 percent of the total hours required
74 by the board shall be in accounting-related and auditing-related
75 subjects, as distinguished from federal and local taxation
76 matters and management services.
77 Section 3. Subsection (2) of section 473.313, Florida
78 Statutes, is amended to read:
79 473.313 Inactive status.—
80 (2) A license that has become inactive under subsection (1)
81 or for failure to complete the requirements in s. 473.312 may be
82 reactivated under s. 473.311 upon application to the department.
83 The board may prescribe by rule continuing education
84 requirements as a condition of reactivating a license. The
85 minimum continuing education requirements for reactivating a
86 license are those prescribed by board rule and those of the most
87 recent biennium plus one-half of the requirements in s. 473.312.
88 Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the
89 continuing education requirements are 120 hours, including at
90 least 30 hours in accounting-related and auditing-related
91 subjects, not more than 30 hours in behavioral subjects, and a
92 minimum of 8 hours in ethics subjects approved by the board, for
93 the reactivation of a license that is inactive or delinquent on
94 June 30, 2014, if the Florida certified public accountant
95 notifies the Board of Accountancy by December 31, 2014, of an
96 intention to reactivate such a license and completes such
97 reactivation by June 30, 2016.
98 Section 4. Paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section
99 473.322, Florida Statutes, is amended, and subsection (2) of
100 that section is republished, to read:
101 473.322 Prohibitions; penalties.—
102 (1) A person may not knowingly:
103 (c) Perform or offer to perform any services described in
104 s. 473.302(8)(a) or (d) unless such person holds an active
105 license under this chapter and is a licensed firm, provides such
106 services through a licensed firm, or complies with ss. 473.3101
107 and 473.3141. This paragraph does not prohibit the performance
108 by persons other than certified public accountants of other
109 services involving the use of accounting skills, including the
110 preparation of tax returns and the preparation of financial
111 statements without expression of opinion thereon;
112 (2) Any person who violates any provision of this section
113 commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as
114 provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
115 Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.