Fees going down? CBA approves dip in license renewal, delinquency fees.

• Author: Allen, Bruce C.
• Position: CapitolBeat

The California Board of Accountancy unanimously approved a four-year reduction in license renewal fees at its March meeting. The renewal fees are currently set at $200 and would be reduced to $120. Delinquency fees would be reduced from the current $100 to $60.

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It is anticipated that the reduction would go into effect July 2011 after being approved by the Department of Consumer Affairs, the State and Consumer Services Agency, the Department of Finance and the Office of Administrative Law.

As with fee increases, fee reductions must be approved as regulatory changes.

This is not the first time that the CBA has proposed fee reductions. In 1998, it reduced licensing fees for several years.

"The recent decision to reduce fees was appropriate given today's economic environment as a way to mitigate the cost of the new peer review requirement," said CBA President and CalCPA member Manual Ramirez, CPA.

While $40 a year may not seem like much, it's rare that any state agency proposes to reduce its fees. The CBA was motivated by the fact that its reserve fund is projected to reach $15.5 million at the end of fiscal year 2009-10. This represents a 16-month reserve; the CBA is only statutorily required to maintain a nine-month reserve.

California has repeatedly "'borrowed'" from the accountancy fund, along with other licensing funds, to meet its ongoing budget deficits. The state general fund owes the CBA $20.2 million that was appropriated by the Legislature in 2002, 2003 and 2008.

At some future date the general fund will begin paying that money back with interest. At that time, the license fee renewal reduction could be extended beyond the four years if conditions warrant.

The CBA reserve grew due to a number of factors, including lower than expected personnel costs due to mandatory furloughs; unfilled vacancies or delayed hiring; and other factors related to expenditure reductions.

CBA Panel to Define New Educational Requirements for CPA Licensees

Also at its March meeting, the CBA appointed members to the new Accounting Education Committee, which held its first meeting April 8.

The committee was created by the passage of last year's SB 819, which requires all CPA candidates to have a minimum of 150 semester hours of education after Jan. 1, 2014.

The law brought California up to the national standard already enacted by most other stales. It also provides for the creation of two CBA committees: one to define courses that would...