AA professional certificate

An AA professional certificate is a qualified certificate that states a verified Accountant-Administratieconsulent (AA) title for signing.

An AA professional certificate is a professional certificate that states, in addition to the holder's name, the verified professional title of Accountant-Administratieconsulent (AA) - one of two legally protected accountancy titles in the Netherlands. Since the 2013 Wet op het accountantsberoep, both titles have fallen under a single law and a single professional body and register keeper, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Beroepsorganisatie van Accountants (NBA), and each is reserved for professionals entered in the NBA's public register:

• Accountant-Administratieconsulent (AA): verified against the AA entry in the NBA register; this certificate states the AA title.
• Registeraccountant (RA): verified against the RA entry in the same register; see RA professional certificate.

Using either title without registration is not permitted, and a certificate issued for one title cannot stand in for the other - the check always has to match the specific title being claimed.

Before the certificate is issued, the applicant's AA registration is checked against the NBA register - the authentic source for that title - following the checks set out in the trust service provider's CP/CPS, in line with the certificate profile for natural persons set out in ETSI EN 319 412-2, so the title printed in the certificate reflects a verified fact rather than an unverified claim. From that point on it works like any other qualified certificate: it binds a public key to the holder's identity and title, and it can underpin a qualified electronic signature (QES) created with a QSCD.

An AA who signs a compilation report, a tax return or correspondence with a supervisor using this certificate carries the title into the signature itself: a reader can verify not just who signed, but that the signatory held the AA title at that moment.