150-hour rundown: understand the new CPA licensure requirements.

• Author: Fox, Jason
• Position: Licensingissues

The education requirements for CPA licensure in California have been a hot issue over the last few years and significant changes are coming. Most importantly; Calilornia's two pathways to licensure will converge into a single pathway Jan. 1, 2014, centered on a newly defined 150 hours of education.

Education requirements to sit kw the Uniform CPA Exam have not changed, however. Candidates are still only required to have a bachelor's degree with 24 semester units in accounting and 24 semester units in business to sit for the exam.

* Business-related subjects include business administration, computer science/information systems, business communications, economics, business law, finance, financial management, business management, marketing, business-related law courses offered by an accredited law school, mathematics and statistics.

* Accounting subjects include accounting, financial reporting, auditing, financial statement analysis, external or internal reporting and taxation. Accounting courses also can include, but are not limited to, those in assurance, attestation, bookkeeping, cost (cost analysis, costing), Peachtree, QuickBooks and CPA review courses taken at a recognized school (degree granting and nationally or regionally accredited).

Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, the only pathway for CPA licensure in California will require 150 semester hours of education--including additional specific course requirements--to go along with 12 months of general work experience and passing scores on the Uniform CPA Exam and the California Professional Ethics Exam. In addition to the core education requirements to sit for the exam, part of the l50 semester hours of education must include 20 additional semester units iii accounting education and 10 semester milts of ethics.

For the 20 semester mins of accounting education:

* A minimum of six semester units shall be completed in accounting subjects, which are the same accounting subjeck as the core education requirements.

* A maximum of 14 semester units may be completed in business-related subjects, which are the same business-related subjects as the core education requirements.

* A maximum of nine semester units may be completed in other academic work relevant to accounting and business. 01 these nine semester units:

* A maximum of three semester units in skills-based courses, which includes courses completed in the English, communications, journalism, as well as the physical, life. natural and social...