Request By:
James T. Ahler
Executive Director
State Board of Accountancy
310 West Liberty
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
You seek an opinion as to whether KRS 325.380 prohibits bookkeepers and other unlicensed (unlicensed as certified public accountants or public accountants) persons from holding themselves out as "accountants" to the public.
You point out that the Board of Accountancy is not concerned with persons designated as accountants who work for a governmental or corporate unit, because there is no opportunity to deceive the public inasmuch as such services are not offered or advertised. However, you are concerned with the offering of accounting services for a fee by an "accountant. "
Subsection 5 of KRS 325.380 provides:
"No individuals, partnership or corporations shall assume or use the title or designation 'certified accountant, ' 'chartered accountant, ' 'enrolled accountant, ' 'licensed accountant, ' 'registered accountant, ' 'accredited auditor, ' 'accounting practitioner, ' 'accredited accountant, ' 'expert accountant, ' 'expert auditor, ' 'certified auditor, ' or any other title or designation likely to be confused with 'certified public accountant' and 'public accountant' or any of the abbreviations 'CA,' 'AP,' 'PA,' 'EA,' 'RA,' 'LA,' or 'AA' or similar abbreviations likely to be confused with 'CPA.'"
As you can see, the aforesaid subsection does not specifically forbid the use of the term "accountant" without an additional qualifying adjective.
In OAG 67-139, copy enclosed, this office was called upon to consider a related question. There, the entity was not an individual practicing "accountancy" but an institute organized to promote certain individual practitioners.
In our view, if a person holds himself out as an "accountant" and utilizes other language or practices which would confuse the public into believing he was a certified public accountant or public accountant, he would be in violation of the aforesaid statute.
However, if he uses the appellation, "accountant, " without any other qualifying language or PRACTICE which would not confuse the public into believing he was a licensed certified public accountant or public accountant, there would not be a violation of said statute.
Each case would depend upon the particular factual situation.