The biggest stories in accounting in 2025

December 31, 2025 2:08 PM

From the decline of the 150-hour rule to staff cuts at the IRS and the ongoing impact of private equity, the last 12 months have been very busy for the profession.

1. The decline of the 150-hour rule

Graduates listen as Vikram Pandit, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., speaks during the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs commencement at Riverside Church in New York.

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

From the very beginning of the year, there has been a steady drumbeat of states passing new CPA licensing rules that offer alternatives to the 150-credit-hour requirement for becoming a CPA. The most common alternatives involve a year or two of work experience, and often extra requirements for CPE.

Close to half of all states have passed or are considering legislation (including Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Texas) and even the AICPA and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy have proposed an alternative — in the hope, no doubt, that a more uniform set of alternatives may help preserve CPA mobility.

2. PE in accounting

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Private equity continued to have a major impact on the profession — driving up valuations, super-charging firm M&A, creating massive new firms almost overnight and raising serious questions about what this will all mean for the profession.

Beyond that, though, it has opened the door to other strategic investors and other investment models, and lit a fire under firms that want to remain independent to start building the strategic plans that will allow them to compete with their PE-backed brethren.

3. A slimmed-down IRS

Congress Focuses On IRS Delay In Disclosing Groups' Scrutiny

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The Trump administration's Department of Governmental Efficiency dove into cutting federal workers shortly after the inauguration, and by the end of the year the Internal Revenue Service had lost half of its staff, leading to major concerns about its capabilities during the upcoming tax season.

4. Revolving doors at the top of the IRS

Frank Bisignano

Eric Lee/Bloomberg

It wasn't just rank-and-file staff that the IRS lost over the course of 2025 — it went through an astonishing seven different commissioners and acting commissioners in less than 12 months.

Biden appointee Danny Werfel kicked things off by resigning just ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump in January, and then a number of acting commissioners resigned over the next several months — reportedly as a result of clashes with the administration over their unwillingness to share taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the end, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been doing double-duty as acting commissioner, while Social Security Administration head Frank Bisignano added a second job in the form of the newly created role of CEO of the IRS in October.

5. The OBBBA

President Donald Trump signs the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on July 4.

President Trump signs the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

Having spent much of the spring wrangling over its provisions, in early July Congress finally passed HR 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as it's more commonly known, which contained a host of new tax rules.

It extended a number of provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that had been set to expire, but also enacted a number of President Trump's campaign promises, including exempting much in the way of tips and overtime pay from taxation — and gave tax pros plenty to talk about with their clients.

6. AI in accounting

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No single event over the course of 2025 signaled the inexorable rise of artificial intelligence — but it was in the news almost every day, from the endless procession of software vendors announcing new AI features in their products, and firms using it to generate referrals, to warnings from regulators, and the constant discussion among the leaders of firms and of the profession as a whole as to exactly how AI will change what accountants do, and how they can make the most of it.

With that said, 2025 was not the year that AI revolutionized accounting — but given the outlook for 2026, it may well be the year it got ready to.

7. Is the pipeline problem easing?

Luis A. Orozco/Cin8 - stock.adobe.com

Anecdotal reports from a number of larger firms suggested that many are having less trouble filling open positions, and the broader trend toward "job hugging" has meant a slowdown in turnover; what's more, very preliminary numbers suggest more students are starting to major in accounting again.

There's good reason for the crunch to ease: Entry-level salaries rose significantly this year; states are offering more alternative pathways to CPA licensure (see No. 1 above); and firms are getting better at recruiting and retention — and at finding other ways to get work done, from outsourcing to automation.

With all that said, it's worth warning that it's highly unlikely the profession will ever return to the golden days of the 1990s and earlier, when it could count on an annual influx of eager young accountants who wanted to stay at a single firm for their entire career.

8. New leadership at the AICPA

Mark Koziel

After three decades under the leadership of Barry Melancon, the AICPA spent its first year with Mark Koziel at the helm. Having worked at the institute himself for many years, and spent time leading a major international firm network, Koziel brought a wealth of experience to the job — but he spent much of his first year listening, receiving hundreds and hundreds of emails from accountants everywhere through his "Ask Mark" campaign, and assessing the state of the profession at a critical juncture.

9. Retrenchment at the PCAOB

Courtesy of PCAOB

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board also saw new leadership, with the defenestration of previous chair Erica Williams in July, and the public announcement by the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkins, that he was seeking a new slate of board members. By the end of the year, Christina Ho had announced her plans to retire at the end of January, the PCAOB produced a budget that calls for spending and staff cuts, and the steady stream of sanctions and fines that had been common under Williams had slowed significantly.

10. The first flip

Analise Olszewski

Experts are calling 2026 "the year of the flip," expecting some of the earliest accounting firms that signed private equity deals to reach their first "turn," when the PE partners look to realize their return by selling on their stake.

But 2025 already saw accounting's first flip, all the way back in January, when Top 100 Firm and earlier PE pioneer Citrin Cooperman's PE partner, New Mountain Capital, sold its stake to even-larger PE firm Blackstone.

The reason the profession is eagerly anticipating flips is to see what kind of market there might be for these stakes — would it be other PE firms? Retirement funds? Sovereign wealth funds? Family offices or wealth management firms? Or — the nightmare scenario — would there be no buyers at all?

From the one example we have so far, it seems as if private equity's interest in the profession remains so strong that they may be the main buyers of other PE firms' stakes. After all, New Mountain only sold its stake in Citrin to another PE firm after investing heavily in Top 10 Firm Grant Thornton and went on to invest in another Top 100 Firm, Wipfli.