CA Membership Fees

Chartered Accountant can practice as a CA individually with a firm if he or she makes a membership payment to the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India). A CA membership fee has been set and standardized by ICAI. The ICAI membership is valid for 12 months and the members are expected to renew their license once it's expired. To get a chartered accountant license, students should apply for CA membership and appear for level examinations and clear the same with a minimum cutoff score. 

What is CA Membership?

CA membership may sound a fancy term, but it is nothing but certification to display that students have completed CA examinations and are eligible to practice accounts under ICAI. The ICAI membership is valid for 12 months, after which graduates are required to renew on an annual basis.

CA membership is essential for graduates to get job opportunities in taxation, auditing, accounts, finance, logistics, and much more. The membership also helps graduates obtain COP (Certificate of Practice) certification, along with which graduates can do freelance auditing and outsourcing. ICAI membership also allows graduates to look for abroad scopes and will help them to secure audits for top overseas companies with branches in India.

Eligibility Criteria for CA Membership

Like any other course and certification, CA membership also has some minimum requirements for eligibility criteria. Some of the most common eligibility criteria include:

• First and foremost, aspirants must've cleared their 10+2 board exams in the commerce field or accounts stream with an aggregate score of over 50% combined.
• Aspirants must have first cleared the CPT exam and, along with that, clear the second level exams or the IPCC exam.
• Upon completion of the IPCC exams, students can appear for CA final exam. Upon clearing CA final exam, graduates are eligible to apply for membership.
• Before the deadline, students must pay ICAI membership fees, post which ICAI won't provide buffer time for the license.

How to Apply for CA Membership

ICAI established the CA course as per the directions of the Indian government in 1949. Since then, ICAI has been the major governing body for CA auditing and accounting operations throughout the country. ICAI offers two types of memberships:

• Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA)
• Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA)

The membership fees in ICAI depend upon the type of membership opted by the graduate along with COP certification or not. ICAI has made the whole application process online owing to the current pandemic scenario.

• Graduates are required to fill up the SSP portal before going for the CA membership fees payment.
• Students must create an account with the SSP portal and enter all valid details along with scoresheets and other necessary documents attached with the form.
• Once the type of membership is selected, graduates can now click on the "Pay now" option, which directs them to the ICAI membership fees payment 2023-24 link. 
• ICAI membership fees for first-time members are similar and there is no need to select the renewal option; rather, they must enter their essential details like membership number, id, etc.
• Upon paying the membership fees, ICAI will take a minimum of 20 days to confirm the application. Graduates can even do bulk payments for future years.

CA Membership Fees

The ICAI membership fees 2023-24 became due for payment on 1st April, 2023 and the last date got extended till September 30, 2023. Here is the Fee Structure as per ICAI laid down in the form of CA Membership Fees:

• Members Not Holding Certificate of Practice
• Members Not Holding Certificate of Practice (Age 60 Years and Above)
• Members Holding Certificate of Practice
• Members Eligible for other Payments(Optional)

Note: The Membership Fee/Certificate of Practice Fee and GST that is at 18%.

Members Not Holding Certificate of Practice

The students can check the membership fee for the members not holding any certificate of practice from the table mentioned below. 

Applicable Fees to Pay by Members Not Holding Certificate of Practice
Associate Membership Fee + GST 18%	INR 1,500 + INR 270	INR 1770
Fellow Membership Fee + GST 18%	INR 3,000 + INR 540	INR 3540

Members Not Holding Certificate of Practice (Age 60 years or Above) 

The students can check the membership fee for the members not holding any certificate of practice (age 60 years or above) from the table mentioned below. 

Applicable Fees  to Pay by Members Not Holding Certificate of Practise (Age 60 years or Above)
Associate Membership Fee + GST@18%	INR 1,100 + INR 198	INR 1298
Fellow Membership Fee + GST @ 18%	INR 2300 + INR 414	INR 2714

Members Holding Certificate of Practice

The students can check the membership fee for the members holding certificate of practice from the table mentioned below. 

Applicable Fees  to Pay by Members Holding Certificate of Practice
Associate Membership Fee + Certificate of Practise Fee + GST @18%	INR 1,500 + INR 3,000 + INR 810	INR 5,310
Fellow Membership Fee + Certificate of Practice + GST @ 18%	INR 3,000 + INR 4,000 + INR 1,260	INR 8,260

Members Eligible for Other Payments (Optional)

The students can check the membership fee for the members who are eligible for other payments which is optional from the table mentioned below. 

Chartered Accountant Benevolent Fund (CABF)
Life Membership	INR 5,000 ( if not already a life member)
Yearly Subscription	INR 1,000
Voluntary Contribution	A Respectable Amount
S Vaidyanath Aiyar Memorial Fund
Life Membership	INR 1,000 ( if not already a life member)
Yearly Subscription	INR 50
Voluntary Contribution	A Respectable Amount
Air Mail Charges for CA Journal (incase of members abroad) (shall not be applicable if members opt for e-journal)	INR 2,478 (optional) including 18% GST

Chartered Accountants' Benevolent Fund (CABF)

ICAI is steadily focusing on Chartered Accountants' Benevolent Fund (CABF), which has constantly held and is still a priority. The fund boosted via CABF is proceeding continuously to help the members in crisis and provide to the late families. Before any professional duty, it is the ultimate responsibility of every member/professional/colleague to contribute a portion to CABF so that the account initiated to support the underprivileged nevermore runs vain. When repaying a membership fee or CA COP fee, it is requested not to forget to take a measure towards a good cause and fill in this CABF.   

CA Membership Fees New Guidelines

With the commencement of the new financial year, the member must repay the Membership fee and restore the Certificate of Practice. For this purpose, ICAI concedes all the members make advance payments for membership and COP fees for a maximum of 10 years at one take.

The terms are valid from April 1, 2023. Benefit for the members are therefore listed below one by one, so that can go through and understand in brief:

• If there is any modification in the membership and COP fee arrangement, and the fees have risen, then the member of ICAI who has previously paid will not have to repay any extra expense. Their name rests in the table of members regardless of shortfall or alteration in the pay structure.
•  An ACA who has obtained advance membership by making advance pays for a specified interval (not of 10 years) and later on continues to become an FCA, in such a circumstance the member is accountable to pay only the variation fees (i.e., the difference in fee of ACA to FCA) for the balance of the period. No added cost.   
• Professionals in their occupied agendas usually tend to overlook repaying for their membership or COP at regular interims. The new stipulation of advanced payments is for them to avoid the penalty/interest on late fees. The provision will encourage the members to uphold their membership without any interference on the reckoning of non-payment. 

CA Membership Fee Tracing Status

If one wants to trace their fee status, there are two ways, online and offline mode. However, the online form is the easiest and quickest one. e-Services of the ICAI website are available 24*7. Steps to track CA membership fees are explained below:

• Step 1: Go to the ICAI Website.
• Step 2: At the right side corner, there is an e-services section.
• Step 3: Click on that, and the page redirects to the e-services page.
• Step 4: Click on the self-service link; it redirects where a landing page pops up.
• Step 5: Fill in the required details to enter through.
• Step 6: Once done, one can find the membership fees section. By clicking on that, a new page will be displayed.
• Step 7: Upon entering the application details, one can pay the fees (or maybe already paid) and be further allowed to seek the transaction status.