Massachusetts CPA Exam Requirements

Massachusetts CPA exam requirementsFor Massachusetts CPA Exam requirements, the State Boardallows you to sit for the exam with 120 semester credit hours, but you have to earn the full 150 credits to get your CPA certificate. The working experience varies depending if you would like to have a “reporting” or “non-reporting” license. Explanation can be found below.

Massachusetts CPA Exam Requirements

1. Education Requirements To Sit For The Exam:

  • Bachelor degree or above
  • 120 semester units from an accredited university or educational institution
  • Course requirement:
    • Accounting: 21 semester units (financial accounting, cost accounting, auditing, taxation)
    • Business: 9 semester units (business law, finance and information systems)
  • You must have completed all of the requirements for your bachelor’s degree before you sit for the exam

2. Additional Requirements To Get CPA License:Education

  • 150 semester units from an accredited university or educational institution

Work Experience (i) Non-reporting license*

  • 1 year of public accounting experience or 3 years of non-public accounting in a position that is substantially equivalent to public accounting.
  • Experience must be beyond entry level and under the supervision of a CPA.
  • None if you have a graduate degree in accounting, business, or law.

(ii) Reporting License

  • Reporting license: 1 year of public accounting experience, and 1000 hours of report (attest) experience, of which not more than 300 hours may consist of full disclosure compilation.

* A non-reporting license allows you to perform all accounting services except issuing reports on financial statements (I believe it means a CPA certificate)Ethics Qualification

  • None required

3. Residency & Age Requirements:

  • US citizenship not required
  • Massachusetts residency not required
  • Minimum age: 18

4. Fees:

  • First-timers: standard CPA exam fees ($743) + $195
  • Repeaters: exam fees + $117-177  repeat application fees

5. Other Useful Information:

6. Contact: Massachusetts Board of Public Accountancy1000 Washington Street, Suite 710 Boston,  MA  02118-6100

  • Email: cpaes-ma@nasba.org
  • Phone: 617-727-1806
  • Fax: 617-727-2197

Can’t Get Qualified In MA? Don’t give up, as you may well be qualified to register through other states and sit for the same CPA exam. With the recent Substantial Equivalency (CPA reciprocity) rule CPAs from most states can practice across the country.

More Questions?

Please feel to drop me a note on my Facebook page and I will be happy to answer your questions.

* 1 semester = 1.5 quarters Photograph courtesy of Werner Kunz

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{ 5 comments }

macpa07

Hw does one calculate 150hr thing?? are correspondence courses also allowed??

Stephanie

Hi macpa07,
In the US education system, each academic year is divided into 2 sections called semester. For each semester, students take a handful of classes, and depending on the length/intensity of the class, it is given a certain “credit hours” — typically 3-4 for each class in each semester.

In general, students get 30 credit hours per year. So in order to get 150 credit hours students typically need 5 years of tertiary schooling, but there are accelerated accounting program that manage to squeeze 150 hours within a 4-year period.

Correspondence classes outside of US are generally not counted towards the 150 hour rule.

Hope it helps? Stephanie

waleed Adel

Non-reporting license Application Required a Social Security Number

what to do, i’m not a US citizen, and i don’t have one

Stephanie

You are right Waleed. For MA you will need to have SSN. We don’t need to be a US citizenship but you will have to spend some time either stay for school or for work in the US. If you don’t have SSN you’ll need to check out other state such as Illinois.

Stephanie

Stephanie

Dear all, due to the volume of the comments throughout the site, I have decided to redirect all questions to my facebook page. If you have any questions, please drop me a note at http://www.facebook.com/ipassthecpaexam.

Thank you! Stephanie