North Carolina State Requirements & Education Options
General Requirement
Applicant must be, or declare the intention to become, a citizen of the United States or must be a resident alien.
Applicant must be eighteen (18) years of age or older.
Applicant must be of good moral character. Application for a North Carolina CPA Certificate will NOT be considered while the applicant is serving a sentence for any criminal offense – this includes incarceration, probation, parole, or a conditionally suspended sentence. The Board will conduct a background check of the applicant, including a check of criminal records.
Education Requirement
- Applicant must have satisfactorily completed at least 150 semester hours of college level coursework including a bachelor’s degree from a college or university that is accredited by a regional accrediting association or from a college or university determined by the Board to have standards that are substantially equivalent to those of a regionally accredited institution. Additionally, the 150 hours must include a concentration in accounting and 24 hours in business courses as described below.
- The North Carolina rules define an accounting concentration below:
- At least 30 semester hours, or the equivalent in quarter hours, of undergraduate accountancy courses which shall include no more than six (6) semester hours of accounting principles and no more than three (3) semester hours of business law; or
- At least 20 semester hours or the equivalent in quarter hours, of graduate accounting courses that are open exclusively to graduate students; or
- A combination of undergraduate and graduate courses which would be equivalent to (1) and (2) above.
- In recognition of differences in the level of graduate and undergraduate courses, one (1) semester (or quarter) hour of graduate study in accounting shall be considered the equivalent of one and one-half (1 1/2) semester (or quarter) hours of undergraduate study in accounting.
- Up to four (4) semester hours, or the equivalent in quarter hours, of graduate income tax courses completed in law schools may count toward the 150 semester hour requirement.
- Where, in the Board’s discretion, an accounting course duplicates another course previously taken, only the semester (or quarter) hours of one (1) of the courses shall be counted in determining if the applicant has a concentration in accounting.
- Accounting courses include such courses as principles courses at the elementary, intermediate and advanced levels; managerial accounting; business law; cost accounting; fund accounting; governmental accounting; not for profit accounting; international accounting; auditing; and taxation. There are many college courses offered that would be helpful in the practice of accountancy, but are not included in the definition of a concentration in accounting. Such courses include business finance, business management, computer science, economics, writing skills, accounting internships, and CPA exam review.
- The 24 hours in business courses must include one (1) three (3) semester hour course from at least eight (8) of the following ten (10) fields of study: communications, computer technology, economics, ethics, finance, humanities/social science, international environment, law, management or statistics. Applicants holding a Master’s or higher advanced degree in accounting, tax law, economics, finance business administration, or a law degree are considered in compliance with the 24-hour business course requirement.
