Statutory auditor

Accountants (often abbreviated WP) is a professional and public office. The duties of the Auditor include, inter alia, the examination of orderly accounting of a company and the examination of the relevant provisions corresponding financial statements.

Legal situation in Germany

Vocational

The following tasks determine the professional image priority (cf. § 2 WPO):

• Audit activity: Auditors perform business checks ( § 2 para 1 WPO). Relevant factor is impressed on the conditional task, perform the prescribed by law audit of annual accounts and annual reports and consolidated financial statements and consolidated annual reports and to grant or deny audit reports on the making and the result of these tests. This includes testing of prepared in accordance with internationally accepted accounting principles, the annual and consolidated financial statements and other statutory audits, such as special audits under the Companies Act. Even voluntary annual audits are accountants and (at up to medium-sized corporations) certified accountants reserved.

Due to its special competence to the auditors also be transmitted other business checks on a regular basis, such as due diligence and fraud audits.

• Assessor / expert services: Also for the profession include the activity as a consultant or expert in all areas of economic management, one of which, for example, the company valuation

• Legal advice: In matters of which the auditor is professionally involved, which are in direct connection with his duties and he can not perform properly without the legal advice, the auditor also has a right to legal services / advice.

• Tax: The professional title tasks is unlimited ( business-like ) assistance in tax matters, ie the tax. It also includes the right of representation of taxpayers before the tax authorities and tax courts.

• Management Consulting: The consulting in business and economic matters is also one of the duties of the auditor.

Professional duties

Due to the special responsibility that takes the auditors through their duties, in the exercise of its activities include the following professional obligations are to be fulfilled ( see § § 43, 43a 49 WPO).

• Occupation reprehensible acts: The auditor has to prove themselves worthy, both within and outside his profession of trust and respect which requires the profession.

• Ownership: The auditor is required to practice his profession independently. He has to determine its actions on its own responsibility to yourself to form an opinion and make his own decisions. This professional principle can now be observed in the large accounting firms no longer employed by individual auditors, it is therefore respected by the respective accounting firm as a whole.

• Conscience: The auditor must exercise his profession conscientiously. Jobs are to be processed properly. When hiring employees whose professional and personal suitability must be checked. Employees shall be informed of professional obligations (in particular Confidentiality ), is known for its appropriate practical and theoretical training and education to provide.

• Independence: The auditor must be independent, ie free from bonds be made ​​that could influence or affect the professional freedom of choice.

• Impartiality: The role of the audit requires that the auditor be free from influences, bonds and considerations is at its findings, assessments and decisions - regardless of whether they are personal, economic or legal nature.

• Impartiality: The auditor must behave impartially in the audit work and the preparation of expert opinions.

• Confidentiality: The duty of confidentiality is the basis for the trust relationship with the client. All the auditors entrusted with his professional activity facts and circumstances may not be disclosed without authorization.

Approval procedures

For admission as an auditor, a corresponding state examination is necessary. For exam candidates must

• Etc. A university degree or exceptionally a long career for an auditor ( § 8, § 8a WPO) and
• At least three years at a specified in ( § 8 paragraph 2 WPO) location, such as auditing firm, at least 2 years mainly in the field of auditing (§ 9 para 1 and 2 WPO), can demonstrate.

In addition to the exam, some personal demands are made (§ 16 WPO ), in particular

• The completion of a property damage liability insurance,
• The right to hold public office,
• Parent 's financial circumstances,
• Medical fitness,
• Professional obligation compliant behavior.

The admission procedure is carried out uniformly throughout Germany by the Chamber of Auditors. With successful completion of the exam, the candidate is entitled to can be ordered as a public accountant. The oath is specified in the WPO. Only with ordering the job title Chartered Accountant / f may be performed. In the performance of the conditional tasks, the seal requirement applies.

The test is very demanding professional exams. The contents of the auditing exam are defined in § 4 auditors audit Regulation ( WiPrPrüfV ). The test areas are

• A. Economic auditing, business valuation and professional law,
• B. Applied Business Administration, Economics,
• C. Business Law,
• D. Tax Law.

The exam consists of a written part and an oral part and is (first and second half-year) offered to two examination sessions per year. As part of the written examination seven supervisory work are ( a specialist in business law, and two each in the other test areas) to work on four to six hours. Reaching a certain grade point cut entitled to participate in the oral examination. Depending on the final mark, the examining committee order a supplementary examination in one or two test areas. A supplementary examination requires the renewed participation in the written and oral part of exam date (usually the following year ) in the test areas concerned. The whole test ( when not achieving the required grade average for admission to the oral examination, in falling through the oral examination or failure to pass the supplementary examination ) may be repeated twice.

A shortening of the test is possible for accountants. These can be paid for by their tax advisor exam as a test in the test area according to tax law (§ 13 WPO). For qualified lawyers or economists and business owners This is not possible; they have to pass the so-called full exam.

An exception is the successful completion of an economics master's program in the sense of ( § 8a WPO) dar. Successful graduates of such " as to the training of professionals particularly suitable recognized course" get three of the seven examinations in WP- examination recognized or adopted. Currently accredited include the Master courses Auditing, Finance and Taxation ( MAFT ) at the University of Osnabrück / Münster University, the Mannheim Master of Accounting & Taxation of the Mannheim Business School, the Masters Course Audit & Tax Fresenius University in Cologne and the Masters Course Auditing and Taxation Pforzheim University. Besides allowed ( § 13b WPO) crediting individual examinations as part of a college education, if the equivalence of test performance in content, form and scope is determined with the requirements specified in (§ 4 WPO) in the approval process by the examining body.

In order to provide a degree of transparency with regard to the extensive exam material, the IDW / WPK working group reform of the auditing exam has made ​​in a publication, a detailed specification of the test areas. This is intended as a recommendation for all the auditors and examination of the auditor training involved.

Due to the high qualitative and quantitative scope of the examination, the failure rates are high. 2008 36.0 % and 21.2% in the two examination dates have passed the full test without supplementary examination. For candidates who passed the tax consultant examination 48.8 % and 47.4 % have passed the exam without supplementary examination.

Work Legal Status

According to § 45 p 1 WPO auditor should as employees of accounting firms, have the status of authorized signatory. 2007 has been added with the law to reinforce the supervision and to reform professional rules in the Wirtschaftsprüferordung that salaried auditors are regarded as senior executives within the meaning of § 5 paragraph 3 of the Works Constitution Act.

Status of key employees upon salaried auditors means that for the salaried auditors various workers' rights (such as the Working Time Act, collective agreements, operating agreements, active and passive right to vote in council elections ) no longer apply.

The Federal Labour Court has, by order of 29 June 2011, 7 ABR 15/10, ruled that § 45 sentence 2 in conjunction with WPO. § 45 sentence 1 WPO is constitutional to be limiting so that the area exception to the Works Constitution applies only to salaried auditors with power of attorney.

The bodies of the Chamber of Auditors have ( 5 para salaried WP / vBP as senior executives within the meaning of § 3 WCA) proposed the deletion of § 45 sentence 2 WPO. The Federal Ministry of Economics was this proposal in the WPO amendment proposals by letter dated March 21, 2012 submitted (see WPK Magazine 2 /2012, p 17 and p 18, available on www.wpk.de ).