2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 40 - Professions and Occupations › Chapter 2 - Accountants › Section 40-2-190. Disclosure of information communicated by client; ownership of statements, records, and working papers created by licensee; copies of client records and other documents.

(A) Except by permission of the client for whom a licensee performs services or the heirs, successors, or personal representatives of a client, or through the terms of a contract between the client and a licensee, a licensee under this chapter must not voluntarily disclose information communicated by the client relating to and in connection with services rendered. This information is confidential. However, nothing in this chapter may be construed to prohibit the disclosure of information requiring disclosure by the standards of the public accounting profession in reporting on the examination of financial statements or to prohibit disclosures in court proceedings, investigations or proceedings under this chapter, in ethical investigations conducted by private professional organizations, in the course of peer reviews, in performing services for that client on a need to know basis by other active persons of the organization, or in the business of persons in the entity needing this information for the sole purpose of assuring quality control.
(B) Subject to the provisions of this section, CPA-prepared records and CPA work papers created by a licensee or on behalf of a registrant, incident to, or in the course of, rendering services to a client, except the reports submitted by the licensee to the client and except for CPA work product, are and remain the property of the licensee in the absence of an expressed agreement between the licensee and the client to the contrary. No statement, record, schedule, working paper, or memorandum may be sold, transferred, or bequeathed, without the consent of the client or the client's personal representative or assignee, to anyone other than one or more surviving partners, stockholders, members or new partners, new stockholders, or new members of the registrant, or any combined or merged firm or successor in interest to the licensee or named successor in the event of the death of the licensee. Nothing in this section may be construed to prohibit temporary transfer of work papers or other material necessary in the course of carrying out peer reviews or as otherwise interfering with the disclosure of information pursuant to this section.
(C) A licensee shall furnish to a client or former client, upon request and reasonable notice, the following documents with respect to the client or former client:
(1) any client records; and
(2) a copy of the licensee's CPA-prepared records or CPA work product, except that such information may be withheld if fees are due to the licensee for the CPA work product, if the work is incomplete, if providing the CPA work product violates professional standards, or if threatened litigation or outstanding litigation exists concerning the engagement or the work performed.
(D) The licensee may make and retain copies of any client records.
(E) With regard to CPA-prepared records:
(1) the licensee may charge the client a fee for the time and expense incurred to retrieve and copy CPA-prepared records and require that the client pay the fee before the licensee provides the records to the client; and
(2) the licensee is not required to convert records that are not in an electronic format to an electronic format. If the client requests records that are already electronic records, then the client's request should be honored. In addition, the licensee is not required to provide the client with formulas, unless the formulas support the client's underlying accounting or other records or unless the licensee was engaged to provide such formulas as a part of its CPA work product.
(F) A licensee's CPA work papers shall be the licensee's property, and the licensee is not required to provide such information to a client. However, state and federal statutes and regulations and contractual agreements may impose additional requirements on the licensee.
(G) Nothing in this section requires a licensee to keep copies of client records, CPA-prepared records, CPA work product, or CPA work papers beyond the period prescribed in any other applicable law.
HISTORY: 1996 Act No. 453, Section 1; 1998 Act No. 325, Section 3; 2000 Act No. 274, Section 3; 2001 Act No. 92, Section 1; 2004 Act No. 289, Section 1; 2022 Act No. 174 (S.812), Section 1, eff May 16, 2022.
Effect of Amendment
2022 Act No. 174, Section 1, rewrote the section.