New York CPA Requirements

New York State Requirements & Education Options

General Requirement

Applicant must be of good moral character.

Applicant must be at least 21 years of age.

Education Requirement

To fulfill the education requirement for licensure, the applicant must complete the following:

An accounting program registered by the Board as licensure-qualifying;

A program determined by the Department, after review of your transcripts, to be equivalent to a registered program; or

15 years of public accounting experience acceptable to the State Board for Public Accountancy.

150-Hour Pathway

A bachelor’s or higher degree from a program that is registered by the Department as meeting New York’s 150 semester-hour education requirement; or a Masters degree in accounting from an AACSB accredited accounting program; or a bachelors or higher degree from a regionally accredited college or university and completion of 150 semester hours in the following content areas, including the following:

33 semester hours in accounting with at least one (1) course in each of the following content areas: financial accounting and reporting, cost or managerial accounting, taxation, auditing and attestation

36 semester hours in general business electives; and

The curriculum must also include, as a stand-alone course or content integrated in other courses, the study of business/accounting communications, ethics/professional responsibility, and accounting research. Click here to see the Board’s 150-hour education requirement chart.

Accounting review courses and/or CPA exam review courses taken for academic credit at a regionally accredited school are NOT accepted toward the accounting concentration requirement (33 hours); they may be accepted toward the business and/or general 150-hour education requirement.