Amendments to the Law of Georgia on Accounting, Reporting and Auditing are underway

With the adoption of the draft law, the existing AML/CFT requirements for the obliged entities will be applied to accountants providing professional services and accounting firms. As a result of the amendment, the circle of obliged entities subject to the supervision of SARAS is expanded based on the objectives of the Law of Georgia on Facilitating the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing and will include accountants providing professional services and accounting firms. 

Within the draft law, the terms ‘accountant providing professional services’ and ‘accounting firm’ are defined. The amendment serves to identify persons of significance for the purpose of facilitating money laundering and terrorist financing, for compliance with FATF recommendations and EU directives.  

The draft law authorizes SARAS to establish requirements for continuing education for accountants providing professional services and accounting firms, in accordance with the rules established by it, in order for the obliged entities to be able to receive qualified and updated information.

According to the draft law, SARAS defines the procedures for maintaining the registers of accountants providing professional services and accounting firms in an electronic form, its structure, its form, a list of information provided therein, the procedures for identifying users and the rule for delegating the management of the register. As a result of maintaining the registry, the persons performing accounting activities will be identified, which is a prerequisite for ensuring AML/CFT supervision and raising awareness.

In order to fulfill the existing requirements for the obliged entities defined by the Law of Georgia on Facilitating the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing, the appropriate basis for the development and adoption of by-laws by SARAS shall be determined. 

In order to adopt International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM) instead of International Standard on Quality Control (ISQC), it is necessary to make appropriate amendments to the full version of the law. It is worth noting that according to the transitional provisions of the draft law, the authority to audit the financial statements of PIEs granted to the audit firms will be retained until the results of the monitoring of the quality control system are disclosed.

See the detailed information about the draft law on the link.