THE Hong Kong Society of Accountants (HKSA) will submit a proposal soon on the incorporation of accounting firms to the Financial Services Branch, HKSA president Nicholas Etches says.
He expected accounting firms would operate as partnerships and corporates during the transitional period needed to transfer operations while incorporation took place.
Mr Etches said accountants could choose not to incorporate their business or to shift some operations to an incorporated vehicle.
'I think practitioners would tend to incorporate operations with higher risks . . . [business related to] public listed clients would be one of those,' he said.
This was because insurance was required, as stated in a bill passed in July this year, for all incorporated accounting firms.
Mr Etches said individual practitioners or small partnerships could benefit from incorporating their businesses because they could share operation costs.
Society executive director Louis Wong said the major headache was how to handle the names of incorporated accounting firms as they usually used the names of accountants.