Renewal of Certificate of Registration by Public Accountants for 2022

1 Public accountants who wish to renew their certificate of registration for 2022 (2022 PA renewal) are to submit their application for renewal via BizFile+ (http://www.bizfile.gov.sg) from 1 December 2021. 

Renewal Criteria

2 Public accountants must satisfy all criteria for renewal before the certificate of registration can be renewed. This includes compliance with the Continuing Professional Education (CPE) requirements, orders of the Public Accountants Oversight Committee (PAOC) and payment of amounts outstanding to ACRA.   

CPE Requirements

3 Public accountants must satisfy all criteria for Public accountants are required to obtain at least 120 CPE hours in each rolling 3-year period, of which at least 90 hours must be in structured learning and at least 20 hours must be acquired through structured learning in each calendar year. There are also minimum CPE hours to be acquired in each core expertise area.

4 The relevant rolling 3-year period for 2022 PA renewal is from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2021, and is only applicable for public accountants who are registered before 2020.

5 Public accountants are reminded to exercise due care to ensure (a) compliance with CPE requirements and relevant PAOC orders which may include acquiring additional CPE hours and attendance of specific CPE course; and (b) the accuracy of the information declared.  

6 Please note that the additional CPE hours that a public accountant is required to achieve  for the PAOC order under the Practice Monitoring Programme are in addition to the CPE hours required for the renewal of registration. These hours should not be included as CPE in the renewal of the public accountant’s registration.

7 ACRA will conduct sample checks on compliance to CPE requirements by public accountants and will not hesitate to take enforcement actions against non-compliant public accountants who have renewed their registration under false pretences.  Enforcement action taken in the past included disallowing the renewal of certificate of registration.

8 Please refer to publications available under the Download section at this link for the key observations arising from the past compliance checks and the clarification and guidance relating to CPE compliance.

Applications for Exemption from CPE Requirements

9 Application for exemption from the CPE requirements should be submitted via BizFile⁺  before the renewal ends on 31 December 2021.  Public accountants who have submitted a CPE exemption application should wait for the outcome before submitting the renewal application.

10  Public accountants are required to provide the following when submitting the CPE exemption application:

a. the duly completed template (Excel, 100KB) providing details of their CPE shortfall such as the extent of the shortfall and the CPE category to which the shortfall relates;

b. detailed reasons for not meeting the CPE requirements;

c. details of CPE hours acquired in 2021, in the format set out in Appendix V of the CPE Syllabus;

d. evidence of participation of structured CPE hours acquired in 2021; and

e. details of courses the public accountant has signed up to make up for the CPE shortfall.

Please note that any incomplete application for exemption will not be processed, and application for exemption from CPE requirements will only be granted in exceptional cases.  

11 If the application for exemption is approved, the PAOC may require the public accountant to make up for the CPE shortfall and acquire additional CPE hours within a certain timeframe as a condition for allowing the public accountant to renew his certificate of registration. If the application for exemption is rejected, the public accountant will have to cease practising as a public accountant after his certificate of registration expires on 31 Dec 2021. 

Public Accountants registered for the purpose of becoming Judicial Managers (JM) and/or Trustees in bankruptcy (TIB) and not to perform audits of financial statements (JM-PAs)  

12 With the commencement of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (IRDA) from 30 July 2020, only JM-PAs who were appointed as JMs or TIBs of companies placed under judicial management or a bankruptcy order before the commencement of the IRDA, for which the JM or TIB work is still ongoing, will be allowed to renew their registration as a public accountant, until the completion of these cases. This is to avoid any disruption to these cases.  The renewal of registration is subject to the applicants meeting renewal requirements.  

13 ACRA will be writing to JM-PAs to obtain details of their pending pre-IRDA cases. 

Renewal Fee

14 The fee payable for the renewal of a certificate of registration for 2022 is as follows:

a. A fixed sum of $600 and

b. A variable sum as set out in the table below:

Public Accounting Entity in which the Public Accountant is practising 

15 Public accountants should ensure that the relevant particulars of the entities in which they are practising as a partner or director or employee of the relevant entities are kept up to date.  Public accountants should notify the Registrar of Public Accountants of changes in the position they are holding in the entities by filing a change in particulars of the entities via BizFile+ where required, prior to applying for renewal.  

16 Under the “Public Accounting Entity in which the Public Accountant is practising” section, public accountants are required to indicate the number of clients, which they and the entities in which they are practising, have audited during the year. 

17 For the purpose of the renewal application, public accountants declaring the number for “Clients which are public listed entities on the Singapore Exchange (SGX)” should cover the period from 1 January to 31 December 2021. For the remaining categories of clients, the number declared can be based on the period from 1 January 2021 up to the date of the renewal application submitted in December 2021.  

18 Public accountants submitting application for renewal via BizFile+ should avoid launching multiple login windows or tabs concurrently, to prevent any conflict in the transactions that they are submitting through the BizFile+ portal. 

Important Timeline 

19 The timelines for the 2022 PA renewal are as follow: 

More details

20 Please refer to the following links for more details:

• Information on Renewing Public Accountant Registration

• CPE Syllabus for Registration as a Public Accountant and Renewal of Certificate of Registration

21 If you need further clarification, you can send your enquiries through http://www.acra.gov.sg/enquiry