REGISTERING WITH NASBA MAY NOT DO IT

In the March 1996 edition of The CPA Journal, the article entitled "In-House Seminars--Do Yours Qualify for CPE Credit?" contains a paragraph on page 66 which may be misconstrued:

A firm with CPAs licensed in more than a few states may prefer to apply for sponsor status through the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy Registry. The registry enables a firm to apply for sponsorship once, and the sponsor number assigned is recognized by all participating state boards, considerably reducing paperwork and filing fees.

Sponsors offering courses in New York State to New York licensees must be registered with the State Education Department. It is, however, permissible for a New York licensee to attend a course outside of New York State, which is sponsored by an entity which has only registered with the NASBA registry. Do you consider this an important distinction?

Below is a copy of NASBA's summary of the CPE sponsor requirements by state. It is somewhat alarming that 33 (of 54) licensing jurisdictions have no sponsor registration requirements. I'm not in favor of "over-regulation" but there is no questioning the economic impact generated by the establishment of CPE requirements for practicing licensees in all jurisdictions. The only jurisdictions which have no CPE requirements are Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wisconsin. Therefore the creation of CPE requirements have created a lucrative business "opportunity" for a number of CPE sponsors.

C. Daniel Stubbs, Jr., CPA

Executive Secretary