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Hawaii CPA Requirements (Rules on Exam and Licensing)

Hawaii CPA requirementsHawaii’s education requirement is quite simple but license will only be issued to US citizens, US permanent residents or those who are “authorized to work in the United States without conditions or other encumbrances”.

By the way, if you are thinking about choosing Hawaii because of the tourist attraction, you may be happy to know that you can register in one state and take the exam in another. For example, I registered for Delaware and ended up taking the exam in Guam. Yes, this is entirely possible!

Hawaii CPA Requirements

1. Education Requirements to Sit for the Exam

  • Bachelor degree or above.
  • Accounting degree from school accepted by the Board: automatically qualified.
  • Non-accounting degree from school accepted by the Board: 18 semester hours of accounting courses in intermediate/advanced level.

Note:

  • Applicants are allowed to take the exam within 120 days from meeting the minimum educational requirements (defined by the printing of the NTS (i.e. the ticket) to sit for the exam.
  • Education earned at a community college or two-year degree granting institution is not acceptable unless transferred into a regionally accredited four-year institution.

2. Additional Hawaii CPA Requirements for License

Education

  • 150 semester units from an accredited university or educational institution
  • Accounting courses: 24 semester units in intermediate/advanced level
  • Business courses: 24 semester units in intermediate/advanced level

Experience

  • 1,500 chargeable hours in auditing, OR
  •  2 years of other relevant experience including non-public accounting (but work nature should be substantially equivalent to that of public accounting)

Ethics Qualifications

  • 4 hours of CPE on ethics is required.

3. Hawaii CPA Requirements on Residency & Age

  • US citizenship not required is sit for the exam, but to obtain a license, the applicant must be a US citizen, a US national or those who are “authorized to work in the United States without conditions or other encumbrances”.
  • Hawaii residency not required
  • Minimum age: 18

4. Fees

  • First-timers: $774 + application fee.

*** Special note on NTS***

Please note that unlike most states, NTS approved by Hawaii State Board is valid for 9 months counting from the date of NTS issuance. For details, please refer to the CPA exam handbook below.

5. Continuing Education

CPE is required for license holders. Please click here for Hawaii CPA CPE requirements.

6. Useful Information

7. Contact

Hawaii Board of Accountancy
Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs
PO Box 3469
Honolulu, HI 96801-3469

  • Email: accountancy@dcca.hawaii.gov, cpaes-hi@nasba.org
  • Phone: (808) 586-2696
  • Fax: (808) 586-2689

What if the Hawaii CPA Requirements don’t Work?

Check out these pages to learn about the educational and experience requirements, with my recommendation at the end of the posts:

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below, 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!

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