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Committee holds bill offering alternative CPA licensure pathway; questions raised on education hours and fee increase
Summary
House Bill 11 43 would create an alternative pathway to CPA licensure by replacing a 30-credit hour requirement with additional work experience; the committee held the bill after questions about educational-hour discrepancies and an increase in licensure fees.
Sponsor Representative Van Natter presented House Bill 11 43 to the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee on May 20. The bill would add a second pathway to Certified Public Accountant licensure: instead of meeting the longstanding route of a four-year bachelor's degree plus 30 additional credit hours and two years of work experience, the alternative would require a four-year degree and two years of work experience without the extra 30 credit hours. The sponsor also said the House adopted an amendment requiring the professional licensing agency to accept electronic documentation.
Senator Randolph questioned an apparent discrepancy in the bill text that refers to 120 credit hours on page 1 and 150 hours on page 2; he also raised concerns about a fee increase that appears in the fiscal documents from $35 to $85 beginning in 2024. Lou Belch, representing the Indiana CPA Society and the Cordon Group, told the committee the bill keeps the existing 150-hour pathway available for students already in the process and that the change creates a new option; Belch said he did not have the fiscal note at hand but confirmed the fee change to $85 would take effect in 2024 and that renewal fees would remain the same.
The committee did not vote on the bill and elected to hold it so stakeholders could "digest" the language and return at a later date. Representative Van Natter and the bill's witnesses indicated the regulatory agency would begin accepting electronic documentation if the amendment is approved, and that the bill aims to expand routes to licensure while preserving the existing pathway for students already progressing under the 150-hour requirement.
The transcript contains no final fiscal analysis or agency implementation timeline; the committee asked for additional details and scheduled the bill for further consideration.
