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38 States Now Have Alternative Pathways to CPA Licensure as 150-Hour Rule Rollback Accelerates

By chrisomo

The 150-hour rule rollback has crossed a threshold. As of June 2026, 38 US states have enacted legislation or rule changes establishing alternative pathways to CPA licensure that do not require the long-standing 150-hour education benchmark, according to the Minnesota Society of CPAs state-by-state tracker. Effective dates in Ohio, Georgia, Virginia, Utah, and Wisconsin land inside 2026, marking the fastest pace of state-level licensure reform in a generation.

The headline shift

For more than 25 years, the 150-hour education requirement has been the de facto national standard for CPA licensure across nearly every US jurisdiction. The rule was codified into the Uniform Accountancy Act in 1988 and adopted by all 50 states and the District of Columbia by 2015, according to NASBA. That uniformity is now ending. In May 2025, the AICPA and NASBA jointly released final amendments to the UAA Model Rules formally recognizing a 120-hour-plus-experience alternative, a reversal of the position the two bodies had defended through 2023. Accounting Today first reported that the model amendment was the trigger for state-level acceleration.

States with 2026 effective dates

Ohio: House Bill 238 was signed by Governor Mike DeWine on January 8, 2025, and took effect January 1, 2026. The bill allows licensure with 120 credit hours plus two years of qualifying experience plus passage of the Uniform CPA Examination.

Georgia: House Bill 148 took effect January 1, 2026, creating two alternative paths: a master’s degree in accounting with one year of experience, and a 120-hour bachelor’s degree with two years of experience.

Virginia: The Virginia Board of Accountancy’s 120-hour, two-year experience pathway took effect January 1, 2026 under HB 2042, signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin in March 2025.

Utah: Senate Bill 15 takes effect July 1, 2026, with a 120-hour-plus-experience alternative pathway.

Wisconsin: Senate Bill 52 was enacted in February 2026 and creates a 120-hour pathway with a two-year experience requirement. The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services is finalizing rules for implementation.

Additional 2026 effective-date states tracked by the Minnesota Society of CPAs include Indiana, Iowa, Hawaii, and Minnesota itself.

The mechanics: what the alternative pathways look like

Most alternative pathways enacted in 2025 and 2026 follow one of two structures, per the CFO Dive analysis of the state bills:

• 120 hours plus two years experience. A bachelor’s degree (typically 120 credit hours) combined with two years of relevant accounting experience plus passage of the CPA exam. Ohio, Virginia, and Utah follow this structure.
• Master’s degree plus one year experience. A master’s degree in accounting combined with one year of experience plus passage of the CPA exam. Georgia is the cleanest example.

The traditional 150-hour-plus-one-year-experience pathway remains available in every jurisdiction. The 2025 and 2026 reforms add alternatives. They do not eliminate the 150-hour route.

The cross-jurisdiction problem

NASBA UAA Section 23 governs substantial equivalency for CPA practice across state lines. The mobility framework requires that a CPA licensed in one state be recognized by another state’s board when seeking to practice across the border. If a CPA is licensed in Ohio under the 120-hour path, the substantial-equivalency question is whether jurisdictions still requiring 150 hours, such as California under CBA rules, must extend mobility privileges. NASBA’s May 2025 guidance states that the amended UAA preserves substantial equivalency for CPAs licensed under either pathway, but state-level adoption of that guidance remains uneven. The issue was the headline topic at the NASBA Annual Meeting in November 2025.

Why this is happening now

Two pressures converged. First, CPA exam candidate volume has fallen sharply. The NASBA 2023 Candidate Performance Report showed first-time candidate counts down approximately 33% from the 2018 peak. Second, accounting profession headcount is under sustained pressure. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook reports that the profession needs roughly 130,800 openings per year on average through 2033, a target the current pipeline is not meeting. Additional context appears in the Ledgerism 2026 Accounting Talent Pipeline Report.

The opposing view

The 150-hour requirement was originally adopted to elevate the accounting profession’s standing alongside law and medicine, both of which require post-baccalaureate education for entry. Critics of the rollback, including positions taken by the AICPA through early 2024, argue that the rollback dilutes the credential and reduces the technical preparation new CPAs bring to attest and tax work. Several state society leaders, including the California Society of CPAs, have publicly questioned whether the alternative pathways will close the talent gap or simply lower the floor. The AICPA reversed its position in 2024 after a member task force concluded that the 150-hour requirement was operating as a barrier to entry without a measurable quality benefit, per the AICPA Pipeline Acceleration Plan.

For continuing coverage see Ledgerism news, regulatory updates, and the CPA professional desk.