§ 542.18 — Licensees’ working papers — clients’ records

Iowa § 542.18

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title XIII: COMMERCE
• Ch. 542: PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

Text

1. Subject to section 542.17, all statements, records, schedules, working papers, and
memoranda made by a licensee or a partner, shareholder, officer, director, member, manager,
or employee of a licensee, incident to, or in the course of, rendering services to a client,
except reports submitted by the licensee to the client and except for records that are part of
the client’s records, are the property of the licensee in the absence of an express agreement
between the licensee and the client to the contrary. Such statement, record, schedule,
working paper, or memorandum shall not be sold, transferred, or bequeathed, without the
consent of the client or the client’s personal representative or assignee, to anyone other than
a surviving partner, stockholder, or member of the licensee, or any combined or merged firm
or successor in interest to the licensee. This section shall not be construed as prohibiting a
temporary transfer of working papers or other material necessary in the course of carrying

out peer reviews or as otherwise interfering with the disclosure of information pursuant to
section 542.17.
2. A licensee shall furnish to a client or former client, upon request and reasonable notice,
the following:
a. A copy of the licensee’s working papers, to the extent that such working papers include
records that would ordinarily constitute part of the client’s records and are not otherwise
available to the client.
b. Accounting or other records belonging to, or obtained from or on behalf of, the client
that the licensee removed from the client’s premises or received for the client’s account. The
licensee may make and retain copies of such documents of the client when they form the
basis for work done by the licensee.
3. This chapter does not require a licensee to keep any working papers beyond the period
prescribed in any other applicable statute.