Can the accountant's certificate come back?

In 2014, many professions were deregulated, including the accounting profession. As a result of the entry into force of these regulations, the face of the market has changed significantly. Recently, however, there are voices that the accounting certificate may be returned. How realistic is it and what would the next change in this respect entail?

Deregulation of the accounting profession

The accounting profession has been deregulated under the Act of 9 May 2014 on Facilitating Access to Certain Regulated Professions. This change is beneficial from the perspective of some people planning to work in this industry - now it is possible to occupy positions without having to comply with the formalities in the form of obtaining a certificate. Nevertheless, with the new regulations, the entire market has also changed significantly, which for many means negative effects.

Accounting certificate - effects of abolition

In principle, the most important effect of the introduced changes was to facilitate access to the profession, which for many, especially young people just entering the market, is good news. Moreover, as a result of the increase in universality, accounting services have become cheaper. Nevertheless, as is usually the case, the lower price turned out to be followed by lower quality.

Therefore, the new regulations contributed to the emergence of entities on the market offering more favorable, more competitive prices. It should be noted, however, that the accounting profession requires a high level of proficiency in current legal changes, which requires time to track and analyze them on your own, or to finance external training (and sometimes both). It is therefore worth noting that the price of accounting services takes into account the cost that such specialists put in updating and expanding their knowledge needed in everyday work. Therefore, accountants who make such efforts cannot afford to significantly reduce prices. This leads to a great divergence in the cost of services available on the market.

Will the accountant's certificate come back?

The deregulation of the accounting profession has hit well-qualified specialists in particular, which in turn contributes to lowering the overall level of accounting services across the country. In the long run, cheaper and less reliable services often turn out to be less profitable if we take into account the consequences of mistakes and the additional costs of correcting them. In connection with the above, there were voices regarding the re-certification of the accounting profession.

As Gazeta Prawna points out, this problem has already been noticed by, among others, head of the Department of Financial Accounting at the University of Economics in Krakow dr hab. Mariusz Andrzejewski and Vice-President of the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs Mariusz Korzeb. Similar conclusions were also provided by the Polish Nationwide survey commissioned by the Ministry of Finance on the assessment of the effects of the deregulation of bookkeeping services carried out in 2014. Already in 2019, it was indicated that, in connection with its results, a project could appear that would restore the accountant's certificate. Nevertheless, it is likely that it would only cover the profession of bookkeeping services, which means that it would mainly apply to people who run accounting offices. So far, however, nothing has changed.

Will the accountant's certificate come back? Perhaps this topic will be considered again at the Ministry of Finance, as tax regulations are becoming more and more complicated every year.