A highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Texas State Board of Public Accountancy Billy M. Atkinson, CPA. He provided an update on progress by the State Board in implementing rules pursuant to changes made in the Public Accountancy Act in the 78th legislative session, which ended last June. Among other points made by Atkinson in his address:

• New board rules are now in place to assess guidelines for administrative penalties in disciplinary matters. The rules implement administrative penalty ceilings heightened by the legislation.
• A new board rule outlines the misdemeanor offenses that will subject a licensee to discipline by the board
• The Board repealed rule 511.171 and issued a new rule 511.171 which will allow certificate holders who are not under investigation by the Board to voluntarily surrender their certificates and avoid annual CPE reporting requirements until and unless they want their certificates reinstated. This seems to create a de facto inactive status for CPAs that want to leave the profession. The rule allows reinstatement of the certificate without re-application and re-examination if certain requirements are satisfied. Those requirements include paying all back license fees and penalties and complying with prior CPE requirements up to a maximum of 300 hours of CPE.
• Amendments to Rule 501.76 increase the record retention requirement for attest working papers from four to five years, and makes it clear that non-retention is a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
• Changes to the required ethics course are in the offing; it is anticipated that a four hour course will be required every two years (replacing the current two hours every three year requirement) beginning in January 2005. First publication of these rules will appear in the In Addition section of the Texas Register, available online.
• A task force has been formed to prepare the legislatively-mandated State Board report on application of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its principles to CPAs in Texas. Board member Melanie Thompson, a former president of the TSCPA, chairs the panel.

TSCPA chair elect nominee Larry Edgerton made the report on regulatory and legislative affairs. He made an assessment of possible tax proposals on public school finance that may emerge as recommendations to a special session of the Texas legislature. State tax law changes are but one of four parts of the charge given to select legislative committees now at work; those committees are also charged with determining the adequacy of proposed funding plans; assuring equity among districts and students; providing for accountability; and creating property tax reform.

TSCPA CEO John Sharbaugh spoke at length about public perceptions of CPAs in the post-Enron world, presenting results of research conducted by CAMICO Mutual Insurance Co. Some findings included a thought by 38% of those surveyed that "accountants have become less ethical ... in the past five years ... "

Countering this trend are some serious efforts at image enhancement, according to TSCPA External Relations chair Jeff Eaton, who also reported.

This article is courtesy of the Fort Worth CPA News.