Qualifications Committee reviews CBA licensure, mobility proposals and licensing trends; approves meeting minutes

The California Board of Accountancy Qualifications Committee on Jan. 22, 2025, heard staff briefings on a legislative proposal to modernize CPA licensure and practice mobility, received licensing and long-term licensing-trend reports showing continuing-education compliance issues and a shrinking audit-experience pipeline, and approved minutes from its April 2024 meeting after reopening the vote to allow a member to recuse.

The committee’s legislative update came from Alfred Burleson, an analyst in the CBA’s initial licensing unit, who summarized the board-approved proposal that would remove the 150-semester-unit requirement, narrow the accounting-concentration curriculum to specified subjects, and set a two-year experience requirement with options to reduce that experience by earning an accounting-related advanced degree or specified certificates. “Presuming an author is found, the legislative bill passes in the 02/2025 legislative session and is signed into law, it will have an effective date of 01/01/2026,” Burleson said. Under the proposal, the new pathway would take effect on 07/01/2026 and the existing (legacy) pathway would be phased out on 01/01/2029.

Why it matters: the proposed changes would alter educational and experience routes to CPA licensure in California and change how the board recognizes degrees from California institutions. Burleson cautioned that the proposal is a request for an author and may change as it moves through the legislature.

Committee members asked about…