and Enrolled Agents

Georgia (GA) CPA Continuing Education (CPE) Requirements

Listed below are some of the Georgia CPA CPE requirements that apply to online continuing education. BestCPE designs its courses to meet the credit hour requirement by the Georgia State Board of Public Accountancy. Please use the official rules from the Georgia State Board of Public Accountancy as the official documentation for any questions related to Georgia CPA CPE.

General Information

All licenses expire on December 31 of each odd-numbered year. 

No CPE is required during the first year of licensure.  If the license was issued in an even-numbered year, 40 hours of CPE are required to renew the license the following year.  Eight of the 40 hours must be in auditing and accounting subjects.

After the first renewal period, the CPE requirement is 80 hours every two years.  A minimum of 20 hours must be earned in each year.  Sixteen of the 80 hours must be obtained in auditing and accounting subjects.

No programs are pre-approved by the Board.  The responsibility for substantiating that a particular program is acceptable and meets the requirements rests solely upon the licensee (see Rule 20-11-.03(3)).

Formal correspondence or other individual study programs may qualify provided they are developed and conducted by qualified persons, require registration, and provide evidence of satisfactory completion time, and credit shall be calculated on the basis of the average completion time (see Rule 20-11-.03(5)) .  All required CPE can be acquired through self-study.  There is no limit on the number of self-study CPE hours.

Licensees should retain documentation of CPE credits for five years.  Proof of credits is not submitted to the Board office unless the licensee's CPE credits are audited by the Board.

A licensee who has reached the age of 70 is exempt from CPE requirements.

Requirements

(1) An applicant for renewal of his individual permit to practice as a certified publicaccountant or registered foreign accountant must have completed 80 hours of acceptable continuing professional education, of which 16 hours shall be in accounting and auditing subjects, during the two-year period immediately preceding each biennial renewal date as a condition for renewal, except as provided under paragraphs (2) and (4) below. A minimum of 20 of the 80 hours shall have been earned in each year.

(2) An applicant for renewal of his individual permit to practice as a certified publicaccountant or registered foreign accountant who has been initially certified by this Statefor one year, but less than two, shall have completed 40 hours of acceptable continuing professional education after the date of certification but prior to the expiration date of hisfirst live permit, of which at least 8 hours of continuing professional education reportedshall be in accounting and auditing subjects, as a condition for renewal. An applicant who has been initially certified as a certified public accountant or registered foreign accountant by this State for less than one year at the date of expiration of his first live permit shall not be required to have completed any hours of continuing professional education prior to that first expiration date as a condition for renewal.

(3) "Accounting and auditing courses" for purposes of this section shall be defined as follows:

(a) Accounting-related courses shall include, but not be limited to courses which enhance or develop understanding of generally accepted accounting principles, particularly as they relate to presentation of financial statements, as promulgated by authoritative literature in the United States and pronouncements of the FinancialAccounting Standards Board and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

(b) Auditing-related courses shall include, but not be limited to, courses which enhance or develop understanding of generally accepted auditing standards, particularly as they relate to reporting on financial statements, (including related standards for compilationand review services) as promulgated by authoritative literature in the United States ,including the Statement on Auditing Standards and the Statement on Standards for Accounting an Review Services issued by the American Institute of Certified PublicAccountants and standards issued by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as well as courses related to auditing in specialized industries (e.g. governmental auditing requirements) and environments (e.g. computer systems).

(4) Up to fifteen hours of acceptable education completed during the period immediately preceding the renewal date of a live permit in excess of the requirements for such preceding period may be applied to satisfaction of the continuing professional education requirements of the following period. No carryover hours can be used to satisfy the accounting and auditing hours requirement provided for in this section.

(5) Any licensee who has attained 70 years of age is exempt from the continuing professional education requirement for renewal of his individual permit to practice public accounting.

(6) The Board may relax or suspend the requirements of continuing professional education for reasons of individual hardship or health of the applicant.

  Give us a call at 877-7CPENOW.