CPA Exam Requirements in Virginia

The Virginia Board of Accountancy (BOA) administers the CPA Exam in Virginia. The following requirements must be met to obtain your CPA certification in the Commonwealth.

Ethics
Education and Experience
Examination

Ethics | Top

Each applicant must be a person of good character.

Education and Experience | Top

In June, the Virginia Board of Accountancy (BOA) announced its intention to reduce the number of semester hours a CPA Exam candidate must have to sit for the Exam from 150 to 120, while maintaining the 150-hour requirement to obtain a CPA license. However, the BOA recently clarified that no official changes have been made to sit for the Exam.

Until further notice, eligibility to sit for the Exam remains the same. Exam candidates must have a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with a total of 150 semester hours in accounting and business subjects distributed as follows:

• 30 semester hours in accounting, including financial or intermediate accounting, management/cost accounting, taxation and auditing (These four courses must be upper level accounting, not introductory level courses.)
• 24 semester hours in business subjects, at the graduate or undergraduate level

In addition, the BOA has withdrawn its January 8, 2007, regulatory package that would have set a December 31, 2008, deadline for CPA Exam candidates who qualified under the 120-hour education requirement prior to July 1, 2006, to pass the CPA Exam. Therefore, those who qualified to take the Exam under the 120-hour rule may continue the Exam process, even after December 31, 2008.

If you have any questions, please contact the BOA directly at (804) 367-8505 or visit their website at www.boa.virginia.gov for more information on CPA Exam and licensure. Or feel free to contact VSCPA Technical Services Manager Emily Walker at (800) 733-8272.

Examination | Top

1. Each applicant shall pass (i) a national uniform examination, as approved by the BOA, in auditing, business law and professional responsibilities, accounting and reporting (taxation, managerial, governmental and nonprofit organizations), financial accounting and reporting and other such related subject areas as deemed appropriate by the BOA and (ii) an ethics examination approved by the board. Each part of the examination must be passed with a minimum grade established by the BOA.

2. If at a given sitting of the examination an applicant passes two or more but not all sections, then the applicant shall be given credit for those sections that the applicant has passed and need not sit for reexamination in those sections provided the following conditions are met:

• At that sitting, the applicant wrote all sections of the examination for which the applicant did not have credit;
  
• The applicant attained a minimum grade of 50 on each section taken at that sitting;
  
• The applicant passes the remaining sections of the examination within six consecutive examinations (irrespective of the date on which the examination credit was earned) given after the one at which the first sections were passed; and
  
• At each subsequent sitting at which the applicant seeks to pass any additional sections, the applicant writes all sections for which the applicant does not have credit.

3. The BOA may, at its discretion, waive any of the above requirements for carryover examination credits, if such waiver is in the public interest.

4. Each applicant shall follow all rules and regulations established by the board with regard to conduct at the examination. Such rules shall include instructions communicated prior to the examination date and instructions communicated at the examination site on the date of the examination.

5. Failure to comply with the rules and regulations governing conduct in the examination may result in the loss of established eligibility to sit for the examination or credit for examination parts passed.

6. An applicant to sit for the examination shall obtain an application form from the board or its designee, complete the application in accordance with the instructions on the application and submit the application together with all required documents to the board or its designee by the date determined by the BOA or its designee.

7. An applicant who fails to appear for the examination or reexamination shall forfeit the fees charged for that examination or reexamination unless excused by the BOA.

8. The fee to sit for the examination is established in 18 VAC 5-21-20 G, whether paid directly to the BOA or to a designee under contract to the BOA.

Important Note:
This information is an excerpt of the Virginia Board of Accountancy (BOA) Regulations. Visit the Virginia BOA website at http://www.boa.state.va.us/BRegs.pdf for more information.