Texas Accounting Requirements

The Public Accountancy Act, promulgated by the Texas Legislature, sets the requirements for the CPA Examination.

1. Be of good moral character.

2. Meet specific education requirements.

The Board of Accountancy will determine that each applicant approved to take the CPA examination meets these requirements.

Moral Character

This requirement is determined in two primary ways. The applicant responds to a question on the application about any arrests, convictions, probations, or deferred adjudications. The applicant should provide information about each offense. The board will also conduct a moral character background investigation with the Texas Department of Public Safety. If necessary, the applicant may need to meet with board staff to address his/her moral character before the application is approved.

Education

The applicant must meet specific education requirements before an application for the CPA examination can be filed. These requirements are as follows:

• Earned a baccalaureate or graduate degree conferred by an accredited institution of higher education recognized by the Board; and

• Successfully completed at least 150 semester hours of college credit; and

• Successfully completed at least 30 semester hours of upper division accounting coursework, beyond the first two semesters of elementary accounting as defined by Board rule. At least 15 of these hours must result from physical attendance at classes meeting regularly on the campus of any transcript-institute institution.
  The requirement that coursework must be classified as upper division becomes effective January 1, 2004.

• Successfully completed at least 21 semester hours of upper division related business coursework as defined by Board rule.
  The requirement that coursework must be classified as upper division becomes effective July 1, 2005.

• Successfully completed a 3 semester hour ethics course in a traditional classroom setting that includes ethical reasoning, integrity, objectivity, independence and other core values as defined by Board rule. (Effective July 1, 2005) (Review the current list of Board approved ethics classes.)

For more information, click here to visit the Texas State Board of Accountancy.

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