South Carolina Board of Accountancy

Requirements to be Licensed as a CPA

(A) To meet the educational requirement as part of the one hundred fifty semester (150) hours of education, the applicant must demonstrate successful completion of:

(1) at least thirty‑six (36) semester hours of accounting in courses that are applicable to a baccalaureate, masters, or doctoral degree and which cover financial accounting, managerial accounting, taxation, and auditing, of which at least twenty‑four semester hours must be taught at the junior level or above; and

(2) at least thirty‑six (36) semester hours of business courses that are applicable to a baccalaureate, masters, or doctoral degree and which may include macro and micro economics, finance, business law, management, computer science, marketing, and accounting hours not counted in item (1).

(B) The applicant must satisfactorily pass the uniform CPA examination prepared by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

(C) The applicant must file a Certificate of Experience Form 2102. In general, at least two years of accounting experience under the direct supervision and review of a licensed CPA or licensed public accountant is required. Five years of experience teaching accounting courses in a college or university is generally considered equivalent to the two years of accounting experience. Complete details of required experience may be obtained by going to the forms section of our web site and selecting Form 2202 which includes the experience regulation (1-7) and other information in question and answer format.

(D) After the experience has been approved the applicant will be instructed to download a copy of the Accountancy Law, Regulations and Professional Ethics from the web site and will be mailed an Application for CPA Certificate (Form 2101) which must be returned together with a check or money for a total of $100 ($20 for the Certificate and $80 for License Fee).

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