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OLR Bill Analysis
HB 7020
AN ACT CONCERNING CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS.
SUMMARY
This bill makes a number of changes to requirements for certified
public accountants (CPAs). It adds two new ways to satisfy the
educational requirements and alters the experience required to obtain a
CPA certificate. The bill also alters the requirements for granting a
practice privilege to a person with a principal place of business outside
the state, which permits the person to act as a CPA in the state without
obtaining a Connecticut CPA certificate.
Finally, the bill makes technical and conforming changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2025
CPA REQUIREMENTS
By law, the State Board of Accountancy can issue a certificate of CPA
to someone who meets good character, education, experience, and
examination requirements.
Education
Currently, to satisfy the education requirement, a person must (1)
complete at least 150 semester hours of college education including a
bachelor’s degree or higher from a college or university acceptable to
the board and (2) have an accounting or equivalent concentration, as
determined by the board in a regulation.
The bill adds two alternate ways to satisfy the education
requirements:
1. 120 semester hours of education, a bachelor’s degree or
equivalent from a college or university acceptable to the board,
and an accounting concentration or equivalent, as determined by 2025HB-07020-R000361-BA.DOCX
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the board in a regulation; or
2. 120 semester hours of education, a master’s degree or equivalent
from a college or university acceptable to the board, and an
accounting concentration or equivalent, as determined by the
board in a regulation.
The bill limits the board’s authority to adopt regulations on education
requirements to implementing the bill’s requirements, rather than
allowing the regulations to specify these requirements.
Experience
Current law allows the board to adopt regulations to set the
experience requirements for CPAs and the board’s regulations require
two years of experience. The bill retains the two-year requirement for
those who satisfy the education requirements by having 120 semester
hours of education and a bachelor’s degree with an accounting or
equivalent concentration but reduces it to one year for someone who
meets the education requirements using either of the other two options
described above.
The bill limits the board’s authority to adopt regulations on
experience requirements to implementing the bill’s requirements, rather
than allowing the regulations to specify these requirements.
PRACTICE PRIVILEGES
The bill changes how a person with a principal place of business
outside the state qualifies for a practice privilege in Connecticut that
permits the person to act as a CPA without obtaining a Connecticut
license.
Currently, a person qualifies for practice privileges (with certain
exceptions for those licensed prior to January 1, 2012) if he or she holds
a CPA license from another state and the National Association of State
Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) verifies that:
1. the other state’s licensure requirements are substantially
equivalent to those in the Uniform Accountancy Act (an act 2025HB-07020-R000361-BA.DOCX
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developed by NASBA and the American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants) or
2. the person’s qualifications are substantially equivalent to those
in the act.
The bill eliminates these provisions and instead qualifies a person for
practice privileges if he or she holds a CPA license from another state
and meets the good character, education, experience, and examination
requirements applicable to Connecticut licensees. It allows the board to
decline to provide a person with some or all of the practice privileges if
the other state’s good character, education, experience, or examination
requirements are (1) less stringent than Connecticut’s and (2)
insufficient to protect Connecticut consumers.
COMMITTEE ACTION
General Law Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 22 Nay 0 (03/12/2025)