PCAOB Gets OK for Firm Registration

The accounting oversight board got the green light from federal regulators this week to begin registering accounting firms that audit public companies, and to charge them a fee for doing so.

The American Institute of CPAs, the sixth largest accounting firms and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy all wrote comment letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission protesting  the proposed registration rules as too onerous citing other issues about confidentiality and fee disclosure. But their protests fell on deaf ears.

The next day, the board also set a sliding scale fee schedule for firms, depending on how many public companies they audit, ranging from $250 for firms that don’t audit any public companies, up to $390,000 for firms that audit more than 1,000 companies.

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