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Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority
Announcement

Amendments to the Accountants (Public Accountants) Rules and the Accountants (Accounting Corporations, Accounting Firms and Accounting LLPs) Rules of the Accountants Act

Audience

Accountants

Accounting entities

News Topic

Accounting standards and sector regulation

9 December 2022

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9 Dec 2022

ACRA is making amendments to fee-related requirements of the Accountants (Public Accountants) Rules (“PA Rules”) and the Accountants (Accounting Corporations, Accounting Firms and Accounting LLPs) Rules (“AE Rules”), to enhance clarity and efficiency. 

With effect from 15 December 2022, the PA Rules and the AE Rules have been amended to:

(a) Specify the revised fees for reconsideration of the Practice Monitoring Programme (PMP) outcomes;

(b) Apply prevailing PMP fee caps to public accountants who practise in accounting entities that do not audit any entities whose shares or stock are quoted or listed on a stock exchange operated by Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX);

(c) Clarify that expenses reasonably incurred for purposes of a PMP inspection would form part of the fees payable;

(d) Empower the Registrar of Public Accountants to waive, refund or remit any fee payable under the Accountants Act (AA); and

(e) Remove the fee for the manual certification of prescribed documents.

See Annex for more details of the amendments.

The changes are set out in the following:

Annex 

Details of the Amendments

Amendment details

S/N 

Amendment(s)  

 Previous Requirement 

Reason(s) for the Amendment 

a

Item 6 of the First Schedule of the PA Rules has been amended to provide for reconsideration fees at a rate of $200 per hour, subject to a cap of $2,000. Practice Direction No. 2 of 2022 (132KB, PDF), which supersedes Practice Direction 4 of 2014, has been issued to reflect this amendment.

Fees for reconsideration of PMP outcomes were charged at a rate of $100 per hour subjected to a cap of $1,000 (as set out in Practice Direction No. 4 of 2014).    

To align with the hourly rate of $200 per hour in line with the rate per To align with the hourly rate of $200 per hour in line with the rate per hour for the conduct of  PMP inspection which had been revised in 2017, and reflect the time cost incurred by PMP reviewers in assessing the public accountant’s submission. 

 b

Paragraph 4(2) of the PA Rules has been amended to clarify that PMP fee caps are applicable to public accountants who practise in accounting entities that do not audit any entities whose shares or stock are quoted or listed on a stock exchange operated by SGX.

ACRA’s PMP fee caps are applicable to a public accountant who does not audit any listed entity.

To help small and medium sized practitioners manage their regulatory costs and clarify the definition of a listed entity.

 c

Item 6 of the First Schedule of the PA Rules has been amended to clarify that any expenses reasonably incurred by the PMP reviewer for the purposes of a PMP inspection would form part of the fees payable.

 None

 To stipulate that expenses incurred for the purposes of a PMP inspection (e.g. printing, stationery, transport claims) would form part of the fees payable by the public accountant. 

d

The PA Rules and AE Rules have been amended to empower the Registrar of Public Accountants to waive, refund, or remit any fee payable under the AA.

The AA allows ACRA’s Authority (i.e. ACRA Board), with the approval of the Minister, to make rules to waive, refund or remit any fee payable under the AA. 

To increase regulatory efficiency and to align with the other regulations administered by ACRA. 

e

Item 8 of the First Schedule of the AE Rules has been amended to remove the fee for the manual certification of a copy of, or extract from, any prescribed documents filed with the Registrar.

A fee of $2 per page was prescribed in the AE Rules for manual certification of a copy of, or extract from, any prescribed documents filed with the Registrar. 

To remove manual certification as the service is no longer provided by ACRA. 

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