ICAEW authorisation
Holding a practising certificate alone does not give you the right to sign a UK company audit report or to undertake insolvency work. To do this, you will need to be appropriately qualified and authorised by ICAEW to work in these areas.
Do I need an ICAEW practising certificate (PC)?
You must apply for an ICAEW practising certificate if you:
- are, or wish to act as a ‘responsible individual’ (RI) for audit; and/or
- are a sole practitioner of accountancy services1 within the UK; and/or
- are a principal (partner, director or member of a limited liability partnership) of a firm offering accountancy services1 within the UK; and/or
- wish to act as an insolvency practitioner; and/or
- are an individual responsible for signing ATOL accountants’ reports; and/or
- are responsible for signing Independent Examiner’s Reports unless the charity is small and no fee is charged for the work, or a token non-monetary reward or benefit is received.
For ICAEW members in practice outside the UK, you are not required to hold a PC if you do not have any clients in the UK. You should consider the requirement for a PC in the country where you have your main place of business.
Practising certificate fee
Please visit Pathways costs and deadlines or practising certificate fee information. If you are practising as a sole practitioner, or the sole director and shareholder of a limited company, you will be exempt from the initial practising certificate fee and for the subsequent year’s fee. For further details, visit Regulations governing the power to waive, reduce, remit or refund fees and subscriptions.
Contact us
For all Pathways enquiries, please contact the Pathways team.