Login
iscover
ASIC’s latest industry funding levies will see registered company auditors among the hardest hit, with fees quadrupling in just 12 months.
Newsletter
Company auditors hit hard under ‘short-sighted’ ASIC levy hike
16 March 2021
•
9 minute read
Actual industry levies for the 2019–20 financial year were published by ASIC earlier this month, revealing an $811 levy for registered company auditors, up from $208 the year before.
You’re out of free articles for this month
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
The four-fold jump comes as the number of registered company auditors has shrunk from 4,089 in 2018–19 to 3,817 in 2019–20, while ASIC’s budgeted costs have ballooned from $850,000 to $3.09 million.
“Auditors are among the hardest hit by the latest round of ASIC industry fee increases,” said Dr Jane Rennie, general manager of external affairs at CPA Australia. “Auditors who are sole practitioners will cop the worst of the increase.
“At a time when auditor numbers are declining, a sharp fee increase is concerning and short-sighted.”
CPA Australia’s concerns come as the peak accounting and financial planning bodies have called on ASIC to review its industry funding model, after it was revealed that Australian financial services (AFS) limited licensees would be exposed to $3,926 in fees under the changes.
In earlier submissions to ASIC, CA ANZ called for the “monster levy” to be abolished, or at least reduced, for fears AFS limited licensees would be forced out of the financial advisory space.
However, calls for a review shouldn’t have been necessary, Dr Rennie said, because the industry should have been consulted on the levies before they came to pass.
“ASIC should have consulted with industry before walloping auditors with such a large increase,” Dr Rennie said. “Ultimately, there’s a real question of how much the industry can bear.”
The regulator overshot its budget for regulating registered company auditors “by more than 20 per cent” in 2020, Dr Rennie said, and 22 per cent for auditors of disclosing entities, leaving practitioners to foot the bill for ASIC’s overspending.
“There appear to be no controls around overspending and no limit on budgetary increases,” she said. “That’s just not good enough.”
Dr Rennie’s concerns aren’t limited to the fee hike, either. Given how “speculative” they are, she said, there is no benefit to publishing industry fee estimates at all.
“They certainly don’t help auditors and businesses plan with any certainty,” she said.
“Our expectation was that ASIC’s supervision costs would remain stable for some time following the introduction of industry funding.
“However, we’ve now seen multiple, large increases only a few years after industry funding began.”
You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today!
