Florida CPA Requirements

Florida State Requirements & Education Options

Education Requirement

There are two sets of educational requirements:

Under the Old Rule: Applicants who were accepted for the CPA exam prior to 1983 must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, plus 18 semester hours of accounting courses above the elementary level and 27 semester hours in business courses.

Under the Current Rule: Applicants must have at least 150 semester hours of college education, including a baccalaureate or higher degree conferred by an accredited university, with a concentration in accounting and business in the total educational program that includes:

30 semester hours of upper division accounting to include auditing, cost, three (3) semester hours or four (4) quarter hours of financial accounting and three (3) semester hours or four (4) quarter hours of taxation based on USA Accounting Standards. Not more than three (3) semester hours may be internship programs which may be applied to the 30 semester hours in accounting (internship courses must be taken in conjunction with other traditional coursework at an institution and must appear on the transcript). Further, any remaining internship credit if otherwise acceptable would be applied to the general business requirement; and

36 semester hours of upper division general business to include the following: three (3) semester hours or four (4) quarter hours of business law based on USA Law.