To keep a CPA license active, most state boards require 120 hours of continuing professional education every three years, with a minimum of roughly 20 hours in any single year. Some jurisdictions use an 80-hour, two-year cycle instead. CPA CPE requirements are set by the state board that issued your license, but nearly all boards follow the framework developed jointly by NASBA and the AICPA, which is also the threshold for keeping AICPA membership active.
Hours, Cycles, and the Annual Minimum
One CPE credit equals 50 minutes of participation in a qualifying learning activity.1AICPA & NASBA. 2024 Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education Programs That measurement is universal, and boards count to the decimal. If you finish your reporting period two-tenths of a credit short, you have a deficiency, and the board will not round in your favor.
The 120-over-three-years standard is the most common. A number of boards instead require 80 hours every two years. Either way, most set an annual floor so you can’t push all the work into the final year, and that floor typically lands around 20 hours.
Reporting cycles vary. Some boards use a calendar year ending December 31; others use a rolling cycle tied to the month you were first licensed. You need to know your specific renewal date and plan backward from it. The most common mistake is waiting until the last quarter of the cycle to start earning credits, which turns a manageable requirement into a scramble to find courses that will qualify.
If you were licensed partway through a cycle, your board will almost certainly prorate what you owe for that first partial period, though the formula differs by jurisdiction. Confirm your board’s rule as soon as you receive your license.
Ethics and Subject-Area Rules
CPE content splits into technical and non-technical fields. Technical covers the core of CPA work: accounting, auditing, tax, financial reporting, and related areas. Non-technical covers communication, leadership, and practice management. Boards generally require the majority of your hours to come from technical fields, and they usually cap non-technical hours so they don’t crowd out the technical work.
Ethics is the subject area almost every jurisdiction makes separately mandatory. Under NASBA’s model rules, the standard is two ethics credits for each year of the reporting period, which works out to four hours in a biennial cycle or six in a triennial one.2National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Uniform Accountancy Act Model Rules – January 2024 Some boards require that part of your ethics credit cover their own jurisdiction’s rules specifically, in which case a generic national ethics course will not fully satisfy the requirement.
What Formats and Sponsors Count
The 2024 Joint Statement on Standards, issued by the AICPA and NASBA, recognizes several delivery formats, each with its own crediting rules.
- Group live and group internet-based programs, including in-person seminars and live webinars. For live online programs, the sponsor must verify attendance through unpredictable prompts, with at least three instances of interactive engagement for each credit hour earned.1AICPA & NASBA. 2024 Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education Programs
- Self-study, including recorded webinars and online modules you complete at your own pace. You have to pass a final assessment with a minimum score of 70 percent before the sponsor can issue credit.1AICPA & NASBA. 2024 Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education Programs
- Nano learning, short electronic modules built around a single learning objective and completed in about ten minutes. You must score 100 percent on a two-question assessment to earn the 0.2 credits.3National Registry of CPE Sponsors. Nano Learning
- Blended learning, which combines group and self-study components. The assessment must cover at least 75 percent of the program’s learning objectives.1AICPA & NASBA. 2024 Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education Programs
Credits only count when they come from a sponsor who follows the national standards for course development and participant assessment. The simplest check is NASBA’s National Registry of CPE Sponsors; Registry-listed sponsors have been vetted against the AICPA/NASBA standards. All jurisdictions accept Registry sponsor courses to at least some extent, though a few impose additional requirements on top.4National Registry of CPE Sponsors. CPE Requirements Confirm a sponsor’s status through NASBA’s online lookup before enrolling.5National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Confirm Registry CPE Sponsor Status Completing a course only to find out at renewal that the credits won’t be accepted is a problem that is entirely avoidable.
Credit for Teaching and Writing
You can earn CPE by teaching a qualifying course or by publishing professional writing, with guardrails against double-counting. For a first-time presentation, you can claim preparation time at up to twice the number of credits participants earn, plus credit for the presentation itself. An eight-credit course could yield up to 24 credits for the presenter: 16 for preparation, eight for presenting.1AICPA & NASBA. 2024 Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education Programs Repeating the same course only counts if you have substantially revised the content and the revision required significant additional research.
Published articles, books, and CPE programs can earn credit, but only after independent review and actual publication. You generally cannot claim both authoring and presenting credit for the same material. Many boards cap the total hours you can claim through teaching and writing combined, so check your board’s rules before relying on these credits to carry a large share of your cycle.
Documentation You Must Keep
Every qualifying course should generate a certificate of completion, and keeping those certificates is on you. At minimum the certificate needs to show the delivery method, the field of study, and the CPE credit awarded broken out by subject category.6National Registry of CPE Sponsors. Helpful Reminders About Certificates of Completion It should also carry the course title, the date, the sponsor’s name and ID number, and your name.
Under NASBA’s model rules, retention is the longer of five years or two full reporting periods after each course is completed.2National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Uniform Accountancy Act Model Rules – January 2024 A centralized digital folder works well. If the board audits you and you cannot produce the certificates, you’ll be treated as if you never earned the credits.
Renewal, Audits, and the Cost of Falling Short
License renewal usually runs through your board’s online portal: enter total hours, classify them by subject, pay the fee. Fees vary widely, with most falling somewhere between roughly $50 and $260.
After you submit, your board may select you for a random CPE audit. You’ll be notified and given a window to produce your certificates. If the records check out, renewal proceeds. If the board finds a deficiency, it may grant additional time to cure the shortfall or move directly to discipline.2National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Uniform Accountancy Act Model Rules – January 2024 Fraudulent reporting is treated as its own disciplinary basis, separate from the deficiency itself.
Under the Uniform Accountancy Act, a board can revoke or suspend a license, refuse renewal, reprimand or censure, limit a CPA’s scope of practice, impose an administrative fine, or place a licensee on probation.7National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Uniform Accountancy Act – 9th Edition A first-time minor shortfall often results in a warning or extra time to make up the hours. Repeated or substantial deficiencies, or anything that looks like misreporting, escalate quickly. Practicing with a lapsed or suspended license is treated as a separate violation. Reinstatement after a lapse generally means completing the missing CPE, paying both renewal and delinquency charges, and waiting for board approval before resuming practice.
Inactive, Retired, and Hardship Status
If you are not currently providing services to the public, you can request inactive status. Under the NASBA model rules, CPAs granted an inactive exception are exempt from CPE entirely.8National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Uniform Accountancy Act Model Rules – April 2023 The trade-off: you must display “inactive” next to your CPA title on business cards, letterhead, and professional documents. If you are 55 or older, “retired” is available instead. While on inactive or retired status you cannot offer services that require the credential, though uncompensated volunteer work for nonprofits or government is permitted. Returning to active status requires satisfying a re-entry competency requirement set by your board, typically a specified block of CPE to bring your knowledge current.
Boards can also grant hardship exceptions for health problems, military service, foreign residence, or other circumstances the board considers good cause.2National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Uniform Accountancy Act Model Rules – January 2024 The same inactive restrictions attach while the exception is in place. Request the exception before the reporting period ends; claiming hardship after the fact is a much harder sell.
Multi-State Licenses and AICPA Membership
If you hold CPA licenses in more than one state, you may not need to meet each state’s CPE rules independently. Boards that have adopted UAA Model Rule 6-5(c) exempt multi-state licensees from meeting every state’s specific requirements as long as you meet those of your home state.9National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Streamlining the License Renewal Process Through CPE Reciprocity CPA mobility laws separately allow a CPA in good standing in one state to practice in another without a second license in most jurisdictions. Adoption is not identical everywhere, so verify the rules for any state where you practice.
AICPA membership CPE is a separate obligation from your state license. Regular members must complete 120 CPE hours per three-year period beginning January 1 of the first full calendar year after joining, with a two-month grace period after each cycle.10AICPA & CIMA. AICPA Membership CPE Requirements If your state also uses a 120-over-three-years cycle, the same courses can usually count toward both, but you still track and report them separately. If your state runs a biennial cycle or has different subject-area minimums, plan your coursework so it satisfies both sets of rules at once.