Massachusetts CPA Requirements (Rules on Exam + Licensing)

The Massachusetts CPA requirements state that you can sit for the exam with 120 semester credit hours, but you have to earn the full 150 credits to get your CPA license.

The working experience varies depending if you would like to have a “reporting” or “non-reporting” license. Please find the explanation below.

Massachusetts CPA Requirements

1. Education Requirements to Sit for the Exam

• Bachelor’s degree or above.
• 120 credit hours from an accredited university or educational institution.
• Course requirement:
  • Accounting: 21 credit hours (financial accounting, cost accounting, auditing, taxation).
  • Business: 9 credit hours (business law, finance and information systems).

  2. Additional Massachusetts CPA Requirements for the License

  Education

  • 150 credit hours from an accredited university or educational institution.
  • 30 credit hours of undergraduate accounting courses or 18 semester hours of graduate courses for licensing. Please refer to FAQ for details.
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: You have 3 years from the time you receive notice of passing all 4 parts of the exam to meet the educational requirements for CPA certification/license. If you don’t, you will need to retake all parts of the exam.

  Work Experience

  The requirement is different for full license and non reporting license. Massachusetts CPA requirements state that non reporting license allows you to perform all accounting services except issuing reports on financial statements.

  Here is a direct quote from MA state board website (FAQ page) on the definition of non reporting license:

  If the candidate has no CPA experience or no report (attest) experience in his/her public accounting experience, the privileges of their license will be restricted to all accounting services, except issuing reports on financial statements. This restriction is designated as a non reporting license, but only the Board and the non reporting licensee will be aware of this restriction unless a member of the public were to inquire. The actual license itself has no restriction on it and we rely on the licensee to provide this information to clients or other members of the public if they are presented in their practice of public accounting with a potential report engagement. The non reporting licensee should review 252 CMR 3.01(5) and make a decision to upgrade the license to be able to perform report services.”

  (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.

  *Launched in Apr 2016* The NASBA Experience Verification service is now available to those who do not have access to an active U.S. CPA for verification.

  Ethics Qualification

  • None required.

  3. Massachusetts CPA Requirements on Residency and Age

  • US citizenship not required.
  • Massachusetts residency not required.
  • Minimum age: 18.
  • Social security number (SSN) requirement: The SSN and/or ITIN number is mandatory to obtain a Massachusetts CPA license. There is no waiver. International candidates and H4 visa holders can apply for ITIN by filling out Form W-7.

  4. CPA Exam Fees in Massachusetts

  • Education Evaluation Application Fee: $130.00
  • Exam Section Application Fee: $396.80

  5. Continuing Education

  CPE is needed for license holders. Click here for Massachusetts CPA CPE courses for details.

  6. Source Documents

  • Massachusetts CPA Exam application instruction
  • MA CPA Exam licensing FAQ
  • MA CPA Exam licensing rules (252 CMR 2.00)

  7. Contact

  1000 Washington Street, Suite 710
  Boston, MA 02118-6100

  • Email: cpaes-ma@nasba.org (exam)
  • Email: accountingboard@state.ma.us (licensing)
  • Phone: 617-727-1806
  • Fax: 617-727-2197

  What if the MA CPA Requirements Don’t Work for Me?

  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!