THE NEW & IMPROVED CPA EXAM: A LOOK INSIDE THE CPA EVOLUTION UPDATES

According to the AICPA and NASBA, compared with 1980, there are three times as many pages in the Internal Revenue Code, four times as many accounting standards, and five times as many auditing standards. According to a member of the AICPA board of examiners, the board is "trying to embrace what's changing in the profession and the business environment and the skills a newly licensed CPA will need to possess for licensure. The most notable are as follows: * Process management * Journal entries for income tax provisions * Capital structure * Drafting audit reports * Base erosion and anti-abuse tax * Foreign-derived intangible income * Built-in gains tax for S corporations * All nontax (i.e., business law topics) currently included in REG. Hopefully, textbook publishers and CPA Exam review providers will assist with a quick release of revised textbooks or addendums to current material to give faculty a guide to what content they believe should be covered, in what order, and for which piece of the exam. Because so much content is being added and very little is being removed from the exams, faculty may have to make tough decisions on topics currently being taught: some may have to be eliminated or de-emphasized to cover the breadth of the material being tested.