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The Empowering 4 Factors for US CPA Licensure

Author: Rahil Kumar
by Rahil Kumar
Posted: Jul 16, 2021

The CPA certification is a highly diverse and versatile credential for accountants. A US Certified Public Accountant is a popular and globally acclaimed designation, which is offered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) after an individual clears the Uniform CPA Examination.

A 4 Step Guide towards becoming a Licensed CPA Educational Eligibility

Requirement of 150 credit hours to qualify for a US CPA License; the 150 credit hours are equivalent to 5 years of higher education. It can be accumulated in different ways:

  • 4 years of bachelor + 1 year of master's degree, typically in accounting.
  • 4 years of bachelor with an accelerated program covering 150 credit hours.
  • An Undergraduate Degree gives 120 credit hours and the rest 30 hours gap is filled by the following degree-ing it up.
  • One can opt for a bridge course of one year focusing on Accounting, finance, tax, or business law.
  • An MBA (Masters of Business Administration) is another graduate-level degree that can get you to the150 hour mark.
  • A B.com + CA/CS is also eligible to take the US CPA license.
Exams - Pass the AICPA Uniform CPA exam

To become a licensed US Certified Public Accountant (CPA), you must meet the education and examination requirements. All candidates must pass the Uniform CPA Examination which comprises four sections:

  • Auditing and Attestation (AUD)
  • Business Environment and Concepts (BEC)
  • Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR)
  • Regulation (REG)
Criteria for the exam is as follow-
  • 18 months to pass all four CPA Exam sections with a minimum score of 75 on each paper.
  • As the exam is administered throughout the year, it gives you the flexibility to choose the exam window.
  • Check score release dates to find out when one can expect to receive a score after testing. Ideally, the scorecard is released in one month.
  • After passing all four sections, verify whether your jurisdiction requires a separate Ethics examination before applying for your US CPA license.
  • An essential and very important point to adhere to is that the US CPA license must be taken within 3 years of passing the exam. It also requires earning a certain amount of CPE hours once you have obtained your US CPA License.
  • Experience- 1 year of work experience is mandatory however, it can differ according to different state boards.
Ethics- Online on-demand exam (required by some state boards of accountancy) many boards also accept the AICPA’s comprehensive ethics course your specific state Board of Accountancy will specify where else you can fulfill this public accountancy requirement.

Apply for a US CPA license

When applying for a license, verify that you have the required college credit hours. Generally, you must have 150 with a concentration in accounting.

This includes 30 hours in accounting subjects and 24 hours in business administration subjects.

  • A minimum of 15 hours must be at the graduate level.
  • As for the experience, all candidates for licensure must have a minimum of one year of experience (approximately 2,000 hours) verified by a licensed US CPA only.
Your experience should include work in accounting, attestation, auditing, or taxation. It’s important to check the specific experience requirements with state jurisdiction through which one chooses to apply.

The first step in pursuing this career goal is to ace the US CPA exam. If you haven’t already started studying for it, you will need to pick out a tailored-made CPA review course that fits your learning style and is compatible with your routine. Choose our live classes to help you ease your CPA preparation while you focus on studying, we help you in your administrative work combined with Surgent’s A.S.A.P technology which makes learning smarter in relatively lesser time with a pass percentage of 88%.

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Author: Rahil Kumar

Rahil Kumar

Member since: Dec 12, 2019
Published articles: 9

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