Continuing Professional Education Requirements for CPA’S, RPA’S, and Foreign Accountants

All licenses expire on December 31 of each odd-numbered year. 

No CPE is required during the first year of licensure.  If the license was issued in an even-numbered year, 40 hours of CPE are required to renew the license the following year.  Eight of the 40 hours must be in auditing and accounting subjects.

After the first renewal period, the CPE requirement is 80 hours every two years.  A minimum of 20 hours must be earned in each year.  Sixteen of the 80 hours must be obtained in auditing and accounting subjects.

No programs are pre-approved by the Board.  The responsibility for substantiating that a particular program is acceptable and meets the requirements rests solely upon the licensee (see Rule 20-11-.03(3)).

Formal correspondence or other individual study programs may qualify provided they are developed and conducted by qualified persons, require registration, and provide evidence of satisfactory completion time, and credit shall be calculated on the basis of the average completion time (see Rule 20-11-.03(5)).  All required CPE can be acquired through self-study.  There is no limit on the number of self-study CPE hours.

Licensees should retain documentation of CPE credits for five years.  Proof of credits is not submitted to the Board office unless the licensee’s CPE credits are audited by the Board.

A licensee who has reached the age of 70 is exempt from CPE requirements.

For more information regarding CPE, please refer to Chapter 20-11 “Continuing Professional Education” at this website.