South Carolina CPA Requirements

South Carolina State Requirements & Education Options

General Requirement

Applicant must be 18 years of age or older.

Applicant must be of good moral character.

South Carolina Law requires that every individual who applies for an occupational or professional license provide a social security number for use in the establishment, enforcement and collection of child support obligations and for reporting to certain databanks established by law.

Criminal background check and fingerprinting through the FBI is required at the applicant’s expense. Applicants must wait for instructions from the South Carolina State Board before having the background check completed.

Education Requirement

Applicant must have at least 150 semester hours of college education, including a baccalaureate or higher degree conferred by a college or university acceptable to the South Carolina State Board, and an accounting concentration or equivalent.

The 150 semester hours must include:

36 semester hours of accounting courses that cover financial accounting, managerial accounting, taxation and audit courses. A minimum of 24 of these hours must be taken at the junior or above level.

36 semester hours in business courses that may include macro and micro economics, finance, business law, management, computer science, marketing and accounting hours excluding those

The Board shall accept any college or university accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools or any other regional accrediting association having the equivalent standards, or any independent senior college in South Carolina certified by the State Department of Education for teaching training, and accounting and business programs accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) or any other accrediting agency having equivalent standards.