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Iowa CPA Requirements (Rules on Exam and Licensing)
According to the Iowa CPA exam requirements, a bachelor’s degree is sufficient for you to sit for the CPA exam, but 150 semester hours (together with 1 year of relevant working experience) are required to get the CPA license.
Please note that Iowa allows either public or non-public accounting experience (even teaching experience) to be qualified for CPA license but your work has to be supervised and verified by an active CPA licensee.
Iowa CPA Requirements
1. Education Requirements to Sit for the CPA Exam in Iowa
Candidates should fulfill ONE of the following:
(a) Graduate degree in accounting:
- You are automatically qualified.
(b) Graduate degree in business:
- 24 credit hours in Accounting.
- At least one course in each of financial accounting, auditing, taxation, and management accounting.
(c) Undergraduate degree in accounting or business:
- 24 credit hours in Accounting.
- At least one course in each of financial accounting, auditing, taxation, and management accounting.
(d) Undergraduate degree:
- 24 credit hours in Accounting with at least one course in each of financial accounting, auditing, taxation, and management accounting.
- 24 credit hours of business-related courses, such as finance, management, marketing, economics, and business law.
Special note: Courses in internship or life experience are not acceptable.
2. Additional Iowa CPA Requirements for the CPA License
Education
- 150 semester units from an accredited university or educational institution.
Work Experience
- 1 year of public or non-public accounting experience as well as teaching experience in the accounting field (i.e. work in government, industry, public service or academia is qualified).
- Teaching experience requires teaching a minimum of 24 semester hours of accounting courses.
- Additional requirement for attest qualification (e.g. signing the audit report one behalf of the accounting firm).
- The experience has to be verified by active CPA licensee. The verifier does not need to the supervise but must have an active license and is willing to attest.
- Part-time work is allowed but must complete 2,000 hours within 1-3 years.
Ethics Qualification
- Passing of the CPA Ethics Exam administered by the AICPA.
3. Iowa CPA Requirements on Residency & Age
- US citizenship not required
- Iowa residency not required (residency requirement eliminated in 2002)
- Minimum age: none
4. CPA Exam Fees in Iowa
- Education Evaluation Application Fee: $90.00
- Exam Section Application Fee: $354.80
5. Continuing Education
CPE is required for license holders. Please click here for Iowa CPA CPE requirements.
6. Other Useful Information
7. Contact
Iowa Accountancy Examining Board
200 E. Grand, Suite 350
Des Moines, IA 50309
- Email: AccountancyBoard@iowa.gov, cpaes-ia@nasba.org
- Phone: (515) 281-5910
- Fax: (515) 281-7411
What if the Iowa CPA Requirements don’t Work for Me?
You may want to check out these pages to learn about the educational and experience requirements, with my recommendation at the end of the posts:
- CPA educational requirements: Rules, Obstacles and Solutions
- States with more flexible CPA experience requirements
- How to get extra credit hours for the 150-hour rule
If you have questions, feel free to drop a note in the comment section, or visit my Facebook page.
About the Author Stephanie Ng
I am the author of How to Pass The CPA Exam (published by Wiley), and I also passed all 4 sections of the CPA Exam on my first try. Additionally, I have led webinars, such as for the Institute of Management Accountants, authored featured articles on websites like Going Concern and AccountingWeb, and I'm also the CFO for the charity New Sight. Finally, I have created other accounting certification websites to help mentor non-CPA candidates. I have already mentored thousands of CPA, CMA, CIA, EA, and CFA candidates, and I can help you too!
