Accounting Industry in the USA

Accountants and bookkeepers work for business firms, government agencies, and many other organizations. In the USA public accountants are those who are available to the public for such accounting functions as monthly bookkeeping and tax preparation. Most states do not regulate the qualifications or performance of public accountants.

The only accountants permitted to offer opinions about financial statements should be Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), who have passed difficult national examinations. Accountants must also fulfill the requirements of the state in which they practice including several years of varied experience within the profession. Provided a person is certified accountant, he will be licensed by the state to perform accounting services to clients for a fee.

Business companies, banks and large corporations employ their own accountants to examine their accounts and prepare financial statements or maintain their own internal accounting departments. If a small company or business required preparing some financial statements, it would hire the services of an outside accountant.

Most US CPA firms are relatively small and represent individuals and privately held business for which they prepare financial statements and act as advisors on a tax matters. The largest accounting firms in the United States are known as The Big Five and a large number of their offices are spread throughout the world and the nation’s largest companies are their clients.

Of the various specialized area of accounting that exist, the three most important are: 1) auditing (аудит), 2) income taxation, 3) non-business organizations.

Auditors are accountants who estimate the accuracy of a company’s financial statements, and if they find any disagreements in the documents with generally accepted accounting principles, they will be responsible to inform about them in their report.

Income taxation as the second area of accounting specialization includes determination of a company’s taxes according to the existing laws. The tax accountant sometimes may be a lawyer (адвокат), because if there had been any changes in law, he would have informed the company about it. The methods chosen to report assets and liabilities will influence the amount of tax to be paid, at least within the fiscal year.

A third area of specialization is accounting for non-business organizations, such as universities, hospitals, churches, trade and professional associations, and government agencies. These organizations differ from business companies in many items: 1) they receive resources without paying for them, 2) they do not have profit orientation,3) they have no defined ownership interests as such. As a result, these organizations have no number of differences in record keeping, in accounting measurements, and in the form of their financial statements.

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