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My brother was a CPA and went to work for a company he audited. He was treasurer and moved up to being CEO. Now he's the CFO of a large company. He refused to be a partner of his CPA firm because of the Arthur Andersen meltdown and financial meltdown it caused the partners. He also didn't want the stress of having to bring in clients.

From what I've been told it's a three fold problem: it's the extra hours of college that are required. 150 hours versus 120 means you need a 5th year or you are getting your masters. My nephew considered it but that extra year was a deal breaker so he chose the Finance degree. Now he negotiates contracts. The other issue is the extra hours of work a CPA is required to do. His job is 40 hours per week except for 2 weeks at the end of the year when companies get desperate to finalize deals. His CPA friends are working 50-60 hours per week for the same money year round. When you are 20 years old, who wants to commit to that for the next 40 years? The public auditing requirement is perceived as overly burdensome and boring. The perception is that nobody wants to do the job and that's why it's required as a condition. They get low cost labor nobody wants to do.

Here's the full article: https://www.ft.com/content/e8dc2264-6b8d-4ed5-8bbd-e4a67e7d1e46 "The pipeline of new candidates has thinned because university accounting courses have become less popular in the US. Graduates’ starting salaries can also be at least one-fifth higher in finance or technology, and those careers may not require such an expensive professional qualification. “With the length of time it takes to become a partner, the length of time it takes to achieve financial success, the financial model of CPA firms is archaic,” said Alan Whitman, who ran the accounting firm Baker Tilly for seven years until March." Add in the extra year of college needed, long hours and gruntwork for newbies at large firms, perception of boring, etc.

It's not just CPA's, but the accounting profession over all. The CPA firm I left in December, where I was a senior staff accountant (CMA and EA), has called me twice asking what they can do to get me to come back. They are so short of help they are looking into contracting with a firm in India to handle the "backroom" tasks such as bookkeeping and tax prep that the staff accountants used to handle.

CBS, I'm wondering why. I'm wondering whether the prospect of becoming a CPA has lost some of its appeal for younger folks. I can't imagine that to be the case. From what i know, CPAs serve a more helpful and needed service now more than ever. The number of companies who are sound except for their financial housekeeping seem to be at an all-time high. I've heard of some professional people (doctors, attorneys, etc) regret entering their profession and would not do it again if they were younger and had the choice. I don't know any CPAs who would regret such, although they can be under pressure oftentimes. (I don't know thousands of CPAs but I do know several). The sociologists and such tell us we have left the industrial age and entered the information age. With information at a premium, I believe the demand for the services of a CPA should be at an all-time high. I am inviting discussion on the topic - please ignore that I have not posted in a while.

I can't hardly wait to (try to e-)file my remaining NY non-profit! Ahead of a monthlong stint overseas I sought instruction on how to extend CHAR500; nothing online; finally reached someone in the Charities Bureau who asserted that extensions were automatic this year. Who was I to disagree?