The AICPA & CIMA’s new president and CEO, Mark Koziel, told a group of accountants that the association is preparing for the possibility that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is “rolled up” into the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Trump administration.

He noted that President Trump’s nomination for SEC chairman, Paul Atkins, has previously supported that idea. Atkins was formerly a commissioner at the SEC from 2002 to 2008 and previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers and its predecessor firm, Coopers & Lybrand. 

“Paul Atkins actually is former PwC, friendly to the profession, so we are hopeful there that we can continue strong relationships with the SEC as we go forward,” said Koziel during a speech at a meeting Monday of the Accountants Club of America in New York.

He noted that the new Office of Management and Budget director, Russell Vought, has already moved to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and could do the same with the PCAOB.

“I do think that as we look at things going forward, you’re going to see more of that,” said Koziel. “There are rumors we’re dealing with currently, and Paul Atkins, in his prior stint with the SEC, was already pretty vocal about the fact that he wouldn’t mind seeing the PCAOB be shut down, and anything that the PCAOB does get rolled up into the SEC. So that is something that we are working on today in preparation. People have said, ‘Are you for or against PCAOB?’ For us, whatever they decide to do, we’re going to work with whatever regulator we need to work with as a profession to make sure that we’re serving the public interest the way it needs to be. And so if that means trying to help them along the way to make that happen, to help with standard setting, whatever that might be, those are the things that we need to work on today.”

Unlike the moves by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to shut down the CFPB and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the PCAOB might not have as many advocates fighting in court for it to survive.

“When you think about the fact that the PCAOB, if they were to shut it down, and DOGE would be able to take credit for it, who would oppose it?” said Koziel. “Because it’s not one of those agencies that the average public is generally aware of. It has a $400 million budget, none of which is paid for by taxpayers. It is all funded by issuers as part of the SEC system. But it’s a $400 million win, if they could say it publicly in some way, shape or form. Now that $400 million would have to be reallocated, and they’re still going to have people doing reviews and doing audits of the audits along the way. This is all speculative, but there are rumors on the Hill that PCAOB — that is a possibility as we get out there. Our view is that we are willing to work with whoever the oversight agency is to the profession, and happy to provide any input that we can, and any assistance that we can along the way.”

Koziel was later asked about what might happen to the PCAOB if it went away or became part of the SEC. “The PCAOB, because they’re not technically a federal agency, if they come under the SEC, they’re subject to governmental rules, and I do think they’re going to have a harder time recruiting than they do as a separate entity, as they are today,” he responded. “I also worry about if that were to happen, there’s a couple factors. Number one, if it rolls up into the SEC, any of the findings could become public under the SEC versus where it’s today with the PCAOB. So there are a lot of good things as to how it is today. And I don’t have an opinion one way or the other. We will work with whoever the oversight agency is at that time. They’re a fine organization, but I do think that the reality is today, that there is some likelihood that they may not be here.”

IRS changes

Koziel also discussed the changes at the Internal Revenue Service and how those might affect tax season as well as the new nominee for IRS commissioner, Billy Long. The AICPA has already been in discussions with its contacts at the IRS and the Treasury Department about what is happening with the federal government’s hiring freeze.

“The hiring freeze is out there,” said Koziel. “It does exempt military and border security. There’s been a number of buyouts that have been talked about. The president is encouraging people to retire early, take the buyout, and get out of the government.”

He noted, however, that IRS employees have since been told they will need to work through May 15, a month beyond the tax deadline, even if they have already accepted the buyout offer.

“As far as the hiring freeze itself, we’ve been talking to the IRS, we’ve been talking to Treasury, and all of the hiring that needed to take place to ramp up for the busy season of 2025 happened before the hiring freeze took place,” said Koziel. “The IRS is trying to give us comfort as best they can that they will be functional.”

Even if the IRS isn’t fully functional, CPAs can assist with answering taxpayer questions, perhaps even by staffing the phone lines. “We want to try and help the IRS anyway we can,” said Koziel. “Is there a way for us to help populate the help lines to make it better for getting the phone calls? The courtesy hangup that we used to talk about in years past, that’s still happening. If they put you on hold, there is some point in time that the IRS says you’ve been on hold long enough, so we’re just going to disconnect you. These are people issues. There are going to be retirements that are going to happen in the very near term. We want the IRS to be able to answer our members’ questions, and take care of our members so that they can take care of their clients. I look forward to the conversation. I am already due to meet with the IRS commissioner in March, provided that Billy Long is the appointed IRS commissioner. We’re happy to have those conversations, to really have the best possible working relationship that we can.”

He is also looking forward to working again with Mike Faulkender, who has been named deputy Treasury secretary. Faulkender worked previously for former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during the first Trump administration and kept Koziel and other AICPA officials like CPA.com president and CEO Erik Asgeirsson informed about the Paycheck Protection Program that Faulkender was running.

Tax bill

Another top issue for the AICPA is the ongoing discussions in Washington over the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Republicans are aiming to pass the tax bill through the budget reconciliation process so they can avoid a possible filibuster in the Senate by Democrats, but it’s unclear right now whether it will be part of a single bill along with immigration reform and spending, or be introduced as two separate bills. In either case, Koziel believes it’s unlikely the tax legislation would pass before December. He noted that during the first Trump administration, Republicans weren’t able to pass the TCJA under the reconciliation procedure until late December.

“Even if they got it into one reconciliation bill, this is not the same Congress and White House that we had in his first term,” he said. “The margin of control is paper thin.”

A potential government shutdown on March 14 could upend tax season. “Imagine, all of you tax practitioners, the government shutting down on March 14, so that all of the clients that you’re working on for a March 15 deadline are going to be even that much more challenging if that happens,” said Koziel. He believes a shutdown is unlikely, but warned it’s possible.

DEI impact

Accountants will also need to keep an eye out for the impact of the tariffs that Trump has ordered on countries like Canada, Mexico and China, as well as his executive order prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government. That could run counter to the AICPA’s own efforts to encourage greater diversity in the accounting profession.

“It’s one that worries me a bit, to be honest, because I think we’ve made strides as a profession, a profession that in the days before we identified it, we did not look like the communities we serve,” said Koziel. “We still are not looking entirely like the communities we serve. We’ve done better to try and bring more underrepresented minorities into the profession, to try and get women leaders to be owners and firms and organizations, but we can’t stop that in fear of any type of retaliation. And there could be. We are a federal contractor actually, the AICPA, we provide content to the federal government, and so there are things that we have to watch and some words that most likely will need to change based on all this, but we don’t ask people to do preference hiring based on any of that. We don’t make promotions based on preference promotions for anyone. We’re just saying we need more people in the profession. We need to focus on communities where we are underserved or underserving those communities because we don’t have representation in those communities to be able to do that. And so it definitely has a lot of folks nervous. There were a lot of DEI-related hires within the federal government that have since been laid off. So for us, we want to keep doing what we’re doing. We just may have to change the words along the way as we make that happen, but I am standing here saying we are fully supportive of being a more diverse profession than we have been in years past, and we’re going to continue to drive that as we go forward.”

Pipeline issues

Koziel pointed to the need for the accounting profession to continue to work on increasing its pipeline. He plans to continue the strategic plan of AICPA & CIMA, on implementing the recommendations of its National Pipeline Advisory Group.

“We need to drive more into the profession,” said Koziel. “We need to increase the pipeline. They came out with the recommendations about a year ago. I’ve been through those and they hit it right on the head with all the things that need to be done in this profession.”

He has been mentoring eight young people and encouraging them to enter the accounting profession. “All of us have responsibility for the pipeline, not just the AICPA, not just the state societies, but we can all do our part to try and increase the pipeline,” he said. 

He pointed to work being done in different states on providing alternative paths to a CPA license beyond the traditional 150 credit hours, as in Ohio last month.

“We’ve got to make sure that mobility stays intact as best we can,” said Koziel. “That is something that we continue to work on.”

He noted that two exposure drafts went out for comment late last year proposing changes in the model Uniform Accountancy Act that states follow on alternative pathways to a CPA license and on moving to individual mobility across states. The proposals are still being tweaked after comments arrived by last December. More information is expected, probably in the next 30 days, “but that pathway is a distinct possibility for the country,” said Koziel. 

Accounting Today asked whether the recent news about a 12% increase in accounting undergraduate enrollment in the fall 2024 semester could represent a turning point. Koziel said that was encouraging, but he isn’t ready to declare “mission accomplished” on his 41st day as CEO.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” he responded. “We have to make sure they stay and still work with the schools around that. Getting them to licensure is always going to be something that’s really important.”

Before becoming president and CEO of the AICPA & CIMA, succeeding longtime leader Barry Melancon, Koziel was president and CEO of Allinial Global, an association of independent accounting and advisory firms. Before he left Allineal, he had a meeting with about a dozen member firms in the southeast Panhandle region, including Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas. 

“They said all of our accounting departments are full, so accounting must be doing great because all the schools are full. I said, no, the schools in the Southeast are full. The schools up north are still struggling. They’re still challenged to try and find people,” said Koziel.

Some universities such as the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University are offering generous scholarships to attract accounting students, while other students are enticed by factors such as the weather and climate. “It’s a different environment than when a lot of us went to school, so we still have a lot of work to do, but it’s encouraging to see the 12% increase for sure,” said Koziel. He is inviting CPAs to provide him with feedback by emailing him at [email protected].

Ed Mendlowitz, an emeritus partner at Withum and Accounting Today columnist, was watching the Accountants Club of America meeting online. “Mark provided insights into a lot of the areas CPAs are concerned about,” he said in an email. “Mark said we should be encouraged by the recent increase in accounting student enrollments, but not be complacent about it. We need to make sure they stay and get their CPA license. That requires effort and making sure our firms are using the latest technology to remove the repetitiveness of functions that our staff previously had to do. He also said that adapting technology and how CPA firms are governed are two major areas that need to be jumpstarted. While using technology might be obvious, less so are the many practices that are still being run by a managing partner with huge books of business not being the way to continue. Practices need to be professionally managed and that needs a dedicated CEO leading a C-suite team responsible for running segments of the practice.”