Chartered accountants: the Senate approves the reform of the profession

Furthermore, to enable junior members to play an active role in governance, the minimum membership period required to stand for office within the professional body has been reduced, and measures have been introduced to ensure generational and gender balance when drawing up electoral lists.

Obviously, the details will be set out in a decree, so they are not known at present.

The Government is called upon, first and foremost, to reorganise the activities that constitute the scope of the profession of chartered accountant and accounting expert, by revising the current provisions, specifying the activities reserved by law and distinguishing them from those that typically characterise the profession in the fields of taxation, economic and business, financial, employment law, company law and corporate crisis management, without prejudice to the competences in these areas assigned by legislation to other regulated professions or to professions not organised in accordance with Law 4/2013. In this regard, during the explanations of vote, the need was emphasised to avoid confusion and misunderstandings when detailing typical activities.

The reform introduces clearer rules for professional partnerships and professional firms, setting out the procedures for the establishment, operation and management of organised professional firms and relaxes the rules on incompatibilities, replacing the current automatic mechanisms with the introduction of ex post checks, in line with European principles.

There are also new developments regarding safeguards: the draft bill opens up the possibility of collective forms of professional indemnity insurance for members’ civil liability, with the aim of strengthening safeguards for users of professional services. With regard to fees, clients and professionals remain free to negotiate these, provided that the principles of fair remuneration and proportionality of the service are respected.

In order to recognise advanced professional skills that are increasingly in demand in the labour market, and to prevent the proliferation of lists, registers or sub-registers, specialisations – following years of discussion and a number of failed attempts – are now being incorporated into the profession’s regulatory framework through the introduction of a comprehensive set of regulations.

The reform also reorganises the regional professional bodies, the electoral system – with the introduction of remote voting – and sets the term of office at four years at both national and regional level, whilst maintaining the maximum limit of two consecutive terms.

The Government now has 12 months to issue the implementing decree in accordance with the criteria set out in the enabling act, although Andrea de Bertoldi, a Lega MP and chartered accountant, is convinced that the Government will exercise this delegated power in the near future, adopting the legislative decree implementing the reform, as has already happened for the legal profession.