Dive Brief:

• Lawmakers in Minnesota — initially a pioneer among states in 2023 when it sought to change licensure requirements for certified public accountants — passed an omnibus bill (Senate File 3045) late Monday night that includes legislation creating a new route to becoming a CPA that doesn’t require 150 college credit hours, according to a blog post from Geno Fragnito, government relations director for the Minnesota Society of CPAs.   
• Effective Jan. 1, 2026, the legislation, which still needs to be signed into law by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, creates two new routes to licensure, both of which require passage of the CPA exam. One path requires a bachelor’s degree plus two years of experience and a second permits licensure with a master’s degree and one year of experience. The current pathway, which requires 150 hours of college credit that is effectively a fifth year of college, one year of professional experience and passing the CPA exam, will sunset after June 30, 2030.  
• “It’s been a journey and there’s been some twists and turns along the way but it’s really gratifying to see a lot of other people and states have similar concerns,” Eric O’Link, board chair of the Minnesota Society of CPAs that has backed the law, told CFO Dive. “I’m just really excited to see more people coming into accounting now that we’ve taken a barrier away in terms of removing that extra year of school.” 

Dive Insight:

The accounting talent shortage remains a key issue for finance chiefs. In addition to the accounting industry’s push to change the rules for becoming a CPA, some CFOs are also taking matters into their own hands and combating the labor issue by increasingly taking a bigger hiring role, in some cases acting like a chief human resources officers for finance, in order to staff their teams, according to a recent study from Deloitte. 

The push to change licensure rules appears to be gaining momentum this year. Minnesota now joins at least 13 other states — including South Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Iowa, Georgia, Indiana, Utah, Montana, Virginia, Hawaii, Ohio and New Mexico — that have passed new laws easing the path to CPA, CFO Dive previously reported. 

Not all legislation is sailing through state legislatures. Florida’s CPA bill has stalled and is not expected to pass this year, according to Shelly Weir, president of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Meanwhile both chambers of state legislatures in Nevada and Alaska have approved similar CPA bills although there may be additional sign off needed for official passage, according to Corey Butler, a spokesperson for the MNCPA, which is closely tracking the bills. 

“We kind of kicked it off and had initial pushback and opposition,” Fragnito said, noting that last year marked a key sea change in terms of how the initiative was viewed by the industry, with the momentum starting to grow as the pathways initiative was recognized as something that was in the public interest.

In the fall two staunch opponents of the initiative aligned behind it, with the American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy shifting to support alternative pathways to licensure. Last week the associations formalized their support, approving model legislation that states can follow to change their CPA licensure laws, CFO Dive previously reported.

One of the associations’ key concerns was the impact the changes would have on so-called mobility, which is the ability for CPAs to work outside the state they are licensed in. The AICPA’s model legislation includes a shift from state-based mobility to an individual-based “practice privilege” that they assert maintains a CPA’s ability to work across state lines with a single license. 

This is a developing story. Read more on our website for live updates.