Ethics CPE requirement

California: CPA ethics CPE requirement

California Board of Accountancy · board website
Overtime Education courses are designed to the NASBA/AICPA Statement on Standards for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Programs. An application to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors is pending. Courses are not offered for CPE credit until that application is approved.
Ethics required
4 hours every 2 year(s)
Cycle notes
16 CCR 87(b): 4 hours of ethics per 2-year renewal from any qualifying provider; ethics courses must be at least 1 hour. SEPARATE requirement: 16 CCR 87.8 two-hour Board-approved Regulatory Review course every 6 years (licensees from 2024 forward: once before first expiration).
Field of study accepted
Regulatory Ethics or Behavioral Ethics
Self-study permitted for ethics
Yes
Delivery notes
Self-study must be interactive (NASBA summary). Regulatory Review self-study: 90% passing score, no true/false questions, average completion time of two 50-minute hours demonstrated by pre-test with at least 4 active CPAs (16 CCR 87.9(a)(3)-(4)); the 2 RR hours must be continuous. Nano learning may not be applied to ethics or RR. 16 CCR 88.2: self-study credit by pre-test (min 3 independent participants) or word-count formula; minimum 0.5 credit initially.
Accepts National Registry sponsors
Yes
Board course approval required
No
Separate sponsor registration
No
Minimum passing score
70%
Notes
TIER 1 for the 4-hour ethics requirement: two 2.0-credit Registry ethics courses stack (Q1 hypothesis refuted for CA). The Regulatory Review course is a separate 2-hour tier-2 SKU: CBA approval on form CE-RR-1 (no fee found on the form, in 16 CCR 87.9, or on the CBA page), 2-year approval, mandated content = Accountancy Act Articles 1.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7 and Regulations Articles 1, 6, 9, 12, 12.5, 13 plus historic and recent disciplinary actions; provider must supply current Act and Regulations to participants; RR completion records retained 8 years (87.9(e)); general self-study records 4 years (89). No CBA provider registration for general CPE (16 CCR 88). Structured keys hold the standard ethics-course values: exam_passing_score_min 70 is the NASBA floor for the 4-hour ethics requirement (any Registry course); the 90% minimum and true/false ban in 16 CCR 87.9(a)(3) apply only to the Regulatory Review SKU and belong on that course version. records_retention_years 8 is the RR requirement (87.9(e)(1)); general self-study is 4 years (16 CCR 89).
Sources
Verified
2026-09-09 (verified)

Courses for California

No course is available for this jurisdiction yet.