Continuing Education Requirements

Continuing Education

Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) must adhere to the continuing education requirements set forth by the State Board of Accountancy of the state/s where a CPA license is held. The requirements for continuing professional education vary from state to state. The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) requires certain CPE for maintaining membership. There are also special CPE requirements for those performing work related to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Employee Retirement Security Act (ERISA). Use the search tool on the right to learn about the different CPE requirements.

Tax Return Preparers registered with the IRS must meet
continuing education requirements set forth by the IRS. Below is a summary of the CPE requirements for
Tax Return Preparers.

CPAs

Select the state for which you wish to review CPE requirements:


action   View Upcoming and Recent CPE Rule Changes by State


Tax Return Preparers

The IRS has proposed that Registered Tax Return Preparers will be required to complete continuing education annually. The annual continuing education requirement is expected to include 3 hours of federal tax law updates, 2 hours of ethics, and 10 hours of other federal tax law.

This will not apply to attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries, or enrolled retirement plan agents due to their existing education requirements.

As an interim rule, there is no continuing education requirement for registered tax return preparers or tax return preparers who obtain a provisional PTIN during the first year of registration, which commenced on September 30, 2010.

The beginning date for continuing education has not been determined and obtaining a PTIN through the new system does not trigger any new continuing education requirement.  Once the continuing education requirement begins, affected preparers will have a full twelve months to meet their first year's requirement. 

  • The IRS will require 15 hours of annual continuing professional education, including three hours of federal tax law updates, two hours of tax preparer ethics and 10 hours of federal tax law topics, for tax return preparers who are required to register;
     
  • The continuing professional education requirements will not apply to attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents or others enrolled to practice before the IRS because these individuals generally must complete continuing education requirements to retain their professional credentials;
     
  • The IRS will assess the quality of return preparation by those exempted from continuing professional education (e.g. attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents and others enrolled to practice before the IRS) to determine whether there is a need to expand continuing professional education to include these individuals in the future;
     
  • The IRS will reach out to the various licensing authorities for attorneys, certified public accountants and other tax professionals to encourage them to support annual continuing professional education that includes federal tax law topics and updates and ethics for those individuals who are licensed by them and who prepare federal tax returns;
     
  • Tax return preparers will be required to self-certify the completion of continuing professional education at the time of registration renewal. The IRS will perform random checks to verify compliance.
     

*This information is based on the proposed regulations scheduled for hearing on October 8, 2010. If the regulations are amended prior to final adoption, the above information will be changed to correctly reflect any such amendment at that time.