The Lento Law Firm Defends Wisconsin CPAs
Wisconsin's Accounting Examining Board within the Department of Safety & Professional Services licenses certified public accountants in the state. You know that you cannot practice accounting in Wisconsin lawfully without a state CPA license. You should also appreciate that the Accounting Examining Board has the authority to suspend and revoke a CPA license based on many different grounds. If you face Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board disciplinary charges, take those charges most seriously. Protect your CPA license, job, clients, and career by retaining the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to help you defend and defeat the charges. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now for the premier representation you need for your best disciplinary outcome.
Wisconsin CPA Practice Rewards
With its large and sophisticated economy and many large and small businesses, Wisconsin has many fine accounting firms offering rewarding accounting practice to qualified and licensed CPAs in the state. Those leading accounting firms with offices in Wisconsin include Deloitte, KPMG, Protiviti, NOW CFO, Grant Thornton, Accenture, CDH CPAs, Specialized Accounting Services, Remofirst, Wipfli, Wegner CPAs, Berndt CPA, and Hegg Accounting, among many others. Whether you work in Wisconsin for one of those firms or another fine firm, you know the financial, professional, and personal rewards of your accounting practice. You may have already built or can build a strong individual or corporate accounting practice in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, Appleton, Waukesha, Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Janesville, West Allis, La Crosse, Cheboygan, Wauwatosa, Fond du Lac, Brookfield, New Berlin, Wausau, Menomonee Falls, or another fine Wisconsin city of good size and with a strong and diversified economy. Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board disciplinary charges threaten all those rewards and opportunities. Let us help defend your license.
Nationwide Stakes to Wisconsin CPA Discipline
For better or worse, your Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board disciplinary matter brings with it nationwide stakes. You may have gained your Wisconsin CPA license by endorsement relying on your CPA license in another state. Wisconsin Code Section 442.05 authorizes the Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board to recognize CPA certifications or licenses in other states, saving you the time, trouble, and expense of recertifying. You may also hold or plan to gain a CPA license or certification in another state based on your Wisconsin CPA license. In either case, your discipline in Wisconsin can affect your CPA licenses or certifications, or plans to license or certify, in other states. Licensing boards generally require that you report discipline in another state. They also search for discipline in other states. Don't ignore your Wisconsin disciplinary charges, thinking that you can simply practice accounting in another state. On the contrary, your Wisconsin disciplinary outcome may cost you the ability to practice in any other state. Get our help defending your Wisconsin charges.
Wisconsin CPA Licensure
Wisconsin's legislature included the practice of accountancy among the many professions it determined to closely regulate. Wisconsin Code Section 15.405(1) creates the Accounting Examining Board with general powers to regulate accounting practice within the state's borders. Wisconsin Code Chapter 440 creates the Department of Safety & Professional Services to assist the Accounting Examining Board and other professional boards within the state in regulating professional practice. Wisconsin Code Section 442.001 et seq. details the powers of the Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board. Wisconsin Code Section 442.03 expressly warns that “no person may lawfully practice in this state as a certified public accountant” in your own name or while working for an accounting firm “unless the person has been granted by the examining board a certificate as a certified public accountant....” The same section further requires that the licensed CPA continue to comply with all licensing requirements to retain the license. Wisconsin Code Section 442.11 makes it a crimepunishable by a $500 fine and up to a year in jail to practice accounting in the state without a valid license. You must retain your Wisconsin CPA license to practice accounting in the state. We can help you do so.
Wisconsin CPA Qualifications
Wisconsin Code Section 442.04 details the qualifications you had to meet to obtain your Wisconsin CPA license. Those qualifications included your accounting education at an accredited college or university, passing the licensing exam, showing your good character, including not having disqualifying criminal convictions, and completing one year of supervised accounting practice. You know the substantial time, effort, and expense it took for you to qualify for your Wisconsin CPA license. Your Wisconsin Accounting Examining board disciplinary charges place that substantial investment at risk of loss. Don't lose your substantial investment in your license and practice to disciplinary charges. Get our help for your best outcome.
Wisconsin CPA Disciplinary Authority
Once you get your Wisconsin CPA license, you must continue to meet the state's requirements to hold that license. The Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board has adopted rules regulating the conduct of CPAs that it licenses. Fail to comply with those conduct rules, and you can lose your Wisconsin CPA license. Wisconsin Administrative Code Chapter Accy 1 codifies those accountancy rules into subchapters. Subchapter II requires Wisconsin CPAs to meet rules of professional conduct and integrity. Subchapter III requires Wisconsin CPAs to meet the profession's technical and competency standards. Subchapter IV requires Wisconsin CPAs to meet obligations to clients. Subchapter V requires Wisconsin CPAs to meet rules on advertising, firm names, and client and public communications, while also disqualifying accountants from licensure for certain criminal convictions and other discreditable acts. The Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board has plenty of statutory authority to discipline you, and it has adopted plenty of specific rules under which to do so.
Wisconsin CPA Disciplinary Decisions
The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services maintains a public website to which it posts disciplinary actions of the Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board and other Wisconsin licensing boards. That website is a searchable database. Your accounting firm or other employer, your clients, your colleagues, licensing boards in other states, and your family and friends can all discover your discipline and the grounds for your discipline simply by looking online. You generally also have to disclose prior license discipline on license applications or license renewal applications. You will also likely have to disclose your license discipline to your current employer and clients, while ceasing accounting practice for any license suspension or revocation, and disclose license discipline on employment applications. In short, you generally cannot hide CPA license discipline from the people who matter most to your accounting practice. Let us help you avoid discipline.
Wisconsin CPA Disciplinary Sanctions
Wisconsin Code Section 442.12 authorizes the Accounting Examining Board to “revoke, limit, or suspend for a definite period any certificate, license, or practice privilege, or officially reprimand the holder” when finding grounds for discipline. Other subsections of the same statute authorize the Accounting Examining Board to “impose a period of probation under specified conditions,” “require additional professional education or training, or reexamination,” or to submit to peer review. The Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board may, in other words, do pretty much as it pleases and determines, if it finds grounds for your discipline. Our defense of your disciplinary charges may thus focus not just on disputing the grounds but also on presenting your case in mitigation of any penalty.
Wisconsin CPA License Reinstatement
Fortunately, Wisconsin Code Section 442.12 authorizes the Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board to reinstate a CPA license that the Board has already suspended or revoked. The statute requires an application and a hearing. If you have already lost your Wisconsin CPA license, let us help you prepare a convincing application with all appropriate documentation of your compliance with any sanction terms, your rehabilitation from any wrong, and your grounds for reinstatement. We can also present your testimony and the testimony of others in your support at the required hearing. Don't go it alone when seeking reinstatement. Reinstatement is discretionary with the Board, not automatic.
Grounds for Wisconsin CPA Discipline
The Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board lists the grounds for your CPA license discipline in its rules and regulations. Generally, the Board must allege specific rules or regulations that your conduct violated if the Board intends to impose discipline. But as you can see from the partial list below, the enumerated grounds are so many, broad, and vague that disciplinary officials have substantial discretion in how and what they charge for discipline. Below are some of the common grounds and how our attorneys may be able to help defend you, depending on your circumstances.
Unprofessionalism as Grounds for Wisconsin CPA Discipline
Wisconsin Administrative Code Accy 1.101 first adopts the Code of Professional Conduct of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. As you may well remember from your ethics studies during your accounting education, that Code of Professional Conduct is extraordinarily broad. The Code of Professional Conduct authorizes discipline for undue influence, violation of accounting standards, lack of accounting safeguards, accounting conflicts of interest, advertising fraud, confidentiality breaches, and many other professional wrongs. Our attorneys may be able to show that you did not deliberately violate any Code of Professional Conduct provision, that others misidentified you as the responsible accountant when others were responsible instead, or that your violations were de minimis, promptly corrected, and resulted in no harm, such that a penalty is unwarranted.
Misrepresentation as Grounds for Wisconsin CPA Discipline
Wisconsin Administrative Code Accy 1.102 next prohibits any misrepresentation during accounting practice, while also prohibiting subordinating your accounting judgment to others. Our attorneys may be able to show that all your representations were accurate, that any misrepresentation was not deliberate and was instead innocent, that you were not responsible for any misrepresentation, or that no harm resulted and that you corrected the error as soon as discovered.
Incompetence as Grounds for Wisconsin CPA Discipline
Wisconsin Administrative Code Accy 1.201 next prohibits acts of incompetence, failures to exercise due care, failure to engage in due planning and supervision, acting without sufficient data, and similar forms of accounting incompetence. We may be able to show through expert testimony that your accounting practice met all standards, that others were responsible for any errors, or that any errors were de minimis and led to no harm, and that you promptly corrected them.
Confidentiality Breach as Grounds for Wisconsin CPA Discipline
Wisconsin Administrative Code Accy 1.301 next prohibits violations of client confidentiality. We may be able to show that you kept all confidences, that others were responsible for any confidentiality breach, that any confidentiality breach led to no harm, or that your breach of confidences was within one of the regulatory exceptions.
Discreditable Acts as Grounds for Wisconsin CPA Discipline
Wisconsin Administrative Code Accy 1.401 next prohibits discreditable acts in several forms, including criminal conviction “the circumstances of which substantially relate to the practice of accounting....” Criminal convictions indicating a propensity to violence, such as assault and battery, criminal convictions for crimes of dishonesty, such as criminal fraud, and criminal convictions involving moral turpitude, such as embezzlement or indecent exposure, may all qualify as misconduct. We may be able to show that you did not suffer the alleged criminal conviction, that a court reversed the conviction, or that the conviction was not of a disqualifying crime substantially related to accounting practice.
Wisconsin CPA Disciplinary Procedures
The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services maintains elaborate regulatory procedures for hearing disciplinary matters brought by the Wisconsin Accounting Examining Board. Those procedures meet the constitutional requirements of due process, guaranteeing that the state will not deprive you of your CPA license without fair notice and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. Our attorneys can invoke those procedures to help you defend and defeat the disciplinary charges. If you have already lost your hearing, then we may be able to invoke the procedures to appeal and reverse any sanction. If you have already lost all appeals, we may be able to obtain a court review of the outcome for reversal of any sanction based on due process violations or other violations of your procedural and substantive rights.
Premier Wisconsin CPA Defense Services
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available across Wisconsin, including in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, Appleton, Waukesha, Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Janesville, West Allis, La Crosse, Cheboygan, Wauwatosa, Fond du Lac, Brookfield, New Berlin, Wausau, Menomonee Falls, and other cities and towns, to defend your CPA license. Hundreds of other professionals have wisely trusted us for their best possible disciplinary outcome. Call 888.535.3686 or chat with us now.
