Audit reforms highlight weakness of existing regulation for high street accountants

As the government proposes that the UK audit sector becomes one of the most tightly regulated in the world, it makes even less sense to continue letting a third of the accountancy sector remain almost completely unregulated says Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT).

AAT has highlighted that anyone can call themselves an accountant, that no qualifications are required, no evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and no professional indemnity insurance need be held – however, all of these are requirements to be a member of a professional body. As a result, AAT has long recommended that anyone offering paid for tax or accountancy services should be required to be a member of a recognised professional body.

Adam Harper, AAT Director of Professional Standards & Policy, said:

"The government needs to urgently address the uneven playing field for the accountancy and tax advice sector – which has been brought into even sharper focus by the major reforms being proposed for the audit sector – and raise standards of professionalism across the sector.

"HMRC state that two thirds of agent related complaints are for the one third who are unregulated. The government must do more to raise standards of professionalism for accountants and tax advisers. There are serious tax evasion and money laundering consequences of having so many unregulated accountants and tax advisers, and there are frequent horror stories of mistakes and poor advice that can leave taxpayers with unnecessary fines, penalties and tax liabilities. This means that long overdue reform would benefit individual taxpayers, businesses and the wider economy. An obvious, relatively straightforward and much needed solution would be to require anyone offering paid-for tax and accountancy services to be a member of a recognised professional body."

For more information about this issue, see AAT’s latest blogs: 

• Government must regulate the unregulated – now
• What can we learn from countries that regulate accountants?
• How regulation works for other professions
• After coronavirus, can Government afford the cost of unregulated accountants?

Notes to editors

AAT has long argued that anyone offering paid for tax and accountancy services should be a member of a professional body (AAT, ATT, ACCA, CIPFA, CIMA, CIOT, ICAS, ICAEW, STEP) as a means of combatting the serious problems created by the fact that a third of the sector is currently unregulated. 

Three consultation responses detail the problem of unregulated accountants and AAT’s solution: 

1. Disguised remuneration (September 2020)
2. Tackling promoters of tax avoidance (September 2020)
3. Raising standards in the tax advice market (September 2020)