The Lento Law Firm Defends South Dakota CPAs
Your CPA practice, employment, income, and career are at risk if you face South Dakota Board of Accountancy disciplinary charges. South Dakota law requires that you maintain your CPA license in good standing to practice public accountancy in the state. Do not risk your CPA practice to disciplinary charges. Let the highly qualified attorneys of the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team help you defend South Dakota Board of Accountancy disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now. Let us help you protect and preserve your CPA practice.
South Dakota CPA Practice Rewards
You very likely made a good choice in pursuing a CPA license, practice, job, and career. You've probably long recognized the substantial rewards of a strong CPA practice. Practicing public accountancy in South Dakota can be as rewarding as practicing elsewhere. South Dakota has economically healthy cities like Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Brookings, Watertown, Mitchell, Yankton, Huron, Pierre, and Spearfish to support thriving businesses and other organizations needing public accountancy services. South Dakota also hosts strong and reputable CPA firms like Nelson & Nelson, Casey Peterson, EGE Group, McGinnis & Company, Henjes Conner & Williams, Lamfers & Maas, Trucount CPA, Limestone, Ness Tax, FDJ, and Simmons & Silver, to provide stable, secure, and financially rewarding CPA employment. You know the rewards of your South Dakota CPA practice. Don't lose those rewards to disciplinary charges. Let us help defend you.
Nationwide Stakes to South Dakota CPA Discipline
South Dakota counts itself among the many states that offer CPA licenses by reciprocity, meaning that a CPA who already holds a license in another reciprocating state can gain a South Dakota CPA license by endorsement. Avoiding having to repeat the CPA exam and fulfill other work experience, education, and character requirements, verifications, and documentation again can save you a ton of time, trouble, effort, and expense if you wish to license in another state, depending on your South Dakota CPA license for reciprocal endorsement. But if you suffer discipline on your South Dakota CPA license, you lose that opportunity. Indeed, licensing boards in other states may refuse to grant you a CPA license, either by endorsement or re-examination, if your discipline disqualifies you from their CPA standards. Beware the nationwide stakes of your South Dakota CPA disciplinary charges. You may lose the ability to license and practice nationwide if you suffer South Dakota CPA discipline.
South Dakota CPA Licensure
South Dakota's accountancy laws, codified at South Dakota Codified Laws Sections 36-20B-1 et seq., establish the South Dakota Board of Accountancy to regulate public accountancy practice within the state's borders. Section 36-20B-12 authorizes the Board of Accountancy to adopt and implement rules for licensing CPAs for practice within the state. You must have a valid CPA license from the Board of Accountancy to practice public accountancy within the state. Section 36-20B-63 authorizes the Board of Accountancy to obtain a court order to cease and desist from unauthorized practice without a license or other violations of South Dakota's accountancy laws. Section 36-20B-64 makes the practice of public accountancy without a license a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable with a fine and jail. Do not plan to practice without a license. Instead, retain our Professional License Defense Team to help you obtain your best outcome for the disciplinary charges.
South Dakota CPA Qualifications
The South Dakota legislature's accountancy laws include provisions, beginning at Section 36-20B-14, stating the qualifications a candidate must have to obtain a CPA license. Those qualifications only begin with the requisite accounting degree from an approved institution. You must also prove that you have met the Board of Accountancy's work requirement, that you have good moral character, and that you have no disqualifying criminal convictions or other legal disabilities. You know how much investment your qualification for CPA licensure requires, not only the cost but also the time, trouble, and sheer effort. You also know the returns you expect from that substantial investment. Don't let disciplinary charges ruin those expected returns. Let us help defend disciplinary charges.
South Dakota CPA Disciplinary Authority
The South Dakota Board of Accountancy has the statutory authority to discipline CPA licenses, not just to issue and renew them. South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 expressly authorizes the Board of Accountancy to suspend or revoke your CPA license after appropriate investigation and hearing. Subsequent sections authorize the Board of Accountancy to investigate complaints, subpoena witnesses and documents, determine probable cause to file formal charges, and proceed to a hearing on those charges in order to find misconduct and impose discipline. The Board of Accountancy thus has abundant statutory authority to proceed against your CPA license. It has also staffed its disciplinary function to carry out that statutory responsibility. When you face disciplinary charges, you face a staff professional dedicated to proving misconduct. Level the playing field by retaining our highly qualified attorneys on our Professional License Defense Team.
South Dakota CPA Disciplinary Decisions
When the South Dakota Board of Accountancy determines that a CPA has committed misconduct warranting discipline, it prepares a summary of the sanctioned CPA's name, license number, misconduct, and discipline to include on the Board's public website listing disciplinary actions. Employers, clients, colleagues, other licensing boards, and even family members, friends, and acquaintances outside the public accountancy profession can easily look up your discipline by clicking on your name listed on the public website. You won't, in other words, be able to hide your discipline. Everyone important to you will be able to find out. You may also have affirmative duties to disclose your discipline to other licensing boards, public bodies, agencies, courts, or individuals. The fallout from your discipline and its public disclosure can be large and long-lasting. Let us help you avoid the direct and collateral consequences of discipline by defending the charges.
South Dakota CPA Disciplinary Sanctions
South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 also lists the sanctions that the Board of Accountancy may impose against your license. Those sanctions only begin with license revocation or suspension. The Board of Accountancy may also restrict your license to certain activities, employers, clients, or supervision, put your license on probation while requiring you to complete education or training, send you for periodic peer review to ensure your continuing fitness to practice, reprimand you, fine you and make you pay costs of the disciplinary proceeding, and impose other terms and conditions that the Board determines to be appropriate.
Negotiating Alternative Disciplinary Relief
While these other, lesser forms of discipline can still seriously affect your employment, practice, and reputation, the Board's discretion to shape relief gives our attorneys the opportunity to advocate and negotiate for terms that do not involve discipline but nonetheless meet the Board's public protection interests. For instance, we may be able to show the Board that you are willing to complete or have already completed substance abuse, psychological, or medical evaluation, have already completed additional education or training, or that you have already limited your practice so that the Board need not impose probation or any other terms and conditions. We may be able to help you propose and obtain creative solutions that preserve your clean disciplinary record and do not affect your CPA practice.
South Dakota CPA License Reinstatement
Don't give up all hope, even if you have already lost your South Dakota CPA license. South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-52 authorizes the Board of Accountancy to modify its disciplinary action to reinstate or reissue a CPA license. Our attorneys may be able to help you show the Board of Accountancy that you deserve license reinstatement. That showing will likely require a convincing written application and an equally compelling showing at a hearing before the Board. We can help you with those technical requirements.
Grounds for South Dakota CPA Discipline
South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 lists the permissible disciplinary grounds on which the Board of Accountancy may sanction your CPA license. Disciplinary officials must generally articulate the statutory grounds, although the listed grounds are broad. Consider the common disciplinary grounds below and how our attorneys may be able to help you defend those charges.
Credentials Fraud as Grounds for South Dakota CPA Discipline
South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 authorizes the Board of Accountancy to discipline your CPA license if it determines that you committed fraud in obtaining the credential. That misconduct may include cheating on the CPA exam, intentionally misrepresenting your education or work experience, or intentionally concealing a disqualifying criminal conviction when you apply to renew your CPA license. Our attorneys may be able to help you show that your submissions were accurate and complete or that any inaccuracies or omissions were unintentional and immaterial.
Improper Practice as Grounds for South Dakota CPA Discipline
South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 also authorizes the Board of Accountancy to discipline for “dishonesty, fraud, or repeated acts of negligence in the performance of services as a licensee….” Dishonesty might involve preparing false tax returns for a client. Fraud could involve intentionally preparing exaggerated financial statements to induce a client transaction. Repeated negligence could involve frequent departures from accounting standards. Our attorneys may be able to help you show that your work was honest, accurate, and customary within the standards of the accounting profession.
Unprofessionalism as Grounds for South Dakota CPA Discipline
South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 also authorizes the Board of Accountancy to discipline for violations of rules of professional conduct for accounting practice. Unprofessionalism is a broad category that could include virtually any significant departure from ethics, rules, and norms. Improper transactions with clients, improper intimate relationships with clients or subordinates, harassing co-workers, embezzlement, conversion, theft, or other property crimes involving clients or employers, or practice while mentally impaired or under the influence of drugs or alcohol are examples. Our attorneys may be able to help you show that you did not commit the alleged unprofessional acts, or that you promptly remedied any triggering condition and that you are no longer a threat to repeat any misconduct.
Criminal Conviction as Grounds for South Dakota CPA Discipline
South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 also authorizes the Board of Accountancy to discipline for felony convictions or misdemeanor convictions involving fraudulent or dishonest acts. Felonies can include homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, arson, theft, and other crimes of violence or crimes involving property of significant value. Misdemeanors involving dishonesty may include criminal fraud and uttering and publishing. Our attorneys may be able to help you show that you did not commit the alleged crime, that the court entering the conviction overturned it, or that the conviction was not a disqualifying crime.
South Dakota CPA Disciplinary Procedures
South Dakota Codified Laws Section 36-20B-40 incorporates the South Dakota Administrative Procedure Act and Rules, guaranteeing that you have the opportunity to contest your Board of Accountancy disciplinary charges through a formal hearing process. An independent administrative law judge will hear your matter after you receive adequate notice of the charges. You'll have the right to call witnesses and cross-examine adverse witnesses at that hearing. You'll also have the right to appeal any adverse decision and to seek limited court review of that result.
Defense Attorney Services for South Dakota CPAs
The South Dakota administrative procedures just described do not execute themselves. The Board of Accountancy need not provide you with those protective procedures if you decline or refuse to participate. The best way to strategically invoke those protective procedures is to retain our highly qualified attorneys. Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel. Our attorneys have the administrative law knowledge and experience for your best outcome to CPA disciplinary charges.
Premier South Dakota CPA Defense Services
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available across South Dakota for the defense of your CPA license disciplinary charges. Hundreds of professionals have trusted our highly qualified attorneys to defend their disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now.
