Dear Prof. Stiner,
Thank you for your message and your
corrections of my English.
Homework Answers;
1A. The population of Japan is about
127,000,000 and there are about 14,000 CPAs.
Correct.
In Japan, there is approximately 1 CPA for
every 9,000 citizens.
In the US, there is approximately 1 CPA for
every 650 citizens.
There are about 13 times more CPAs in the
US as there are in Japan.
1B. Because American citizens, wherever
they live in the world, must file a tax return every year.
Residents of the US may also have to file a
US tax return, even if they are citizens of another country.
Many people hire a CPA to file their
personal taxes.
There are two main reason so many individuals use CPAs to file their personal tax returns.
(1) US tax law is very complex. (But so is Japan's.)
(2) The US uses a self-assessment
system. Japan does not.
In
the US, it is the personal responsibility of each taxpayer to tell the
government
how much
income he or she had and how much tax he or she owes.
In
Japan, most individual income tax filings and payments are taken care of by the
salaryman's employer.
2. Thirty-nine states require the 150-hour
plan. Nine states will require it, too.
In the AICPA list of jurisdictions requiring the 150-hour plan, two territories and one district are included.
Guam and Puerto Rico are the
territories. The district is the
District of Columbia.
3. The examination systems are different.
Three tests are required to be a Japanese
CPA.
Some people can automatically pass the
first test, for example, university graduates.
The second test is most difficult.
If we pass it, we learn how to be a CPA.
It takes more than three years and more
than 400 hours to pass the second test.
After mastering this level, we can try for
the third test.
If we pass the third test, we can be a CPA.
Japanese CPA are few. One of the reason is
that the examination is very difficult. So it's difficult for us to be a CPA.
I think that Japan should make many CPAs.
Much accounting is wrong.
Sincerely,
Yoshi