To become a CPA in Kentucky, you need to complete 150 college semester hours with specific accounting and business coursework, pass all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination with a score of at least 75, finish the AICPA’s professional ethics course, log 2,000 hours of supervised accounting experience, and submit a license application to the Kentucky State Board of Accountancy. Each piece has its own rules, and the full path usually takes several years from your first college class to the license in your hand.
Finish the Right 150 College Credit Hours
Kentucky law sets two academic bars. You need a bachelor’s or master’s degree from a college the Board of Accountancy recognizes, with a major or concentration in accounting, and you need 150 total semester hours of college credit.1Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 325.261 – Qualifications for Licensure as Certified Public Accountant A standard bachelor’s degree is 120 hours, so most candidates either enroll in a master’s program or add undergraduate classes to hit 150.
Within those hours, your transcripts must show at least 27 semester hours in accounting subjects (financial accounting, auditing, cost accounting, taxation, and similar) and 12 semester hours in business-related courses such as finance, management, marketing, or business law.2Kentucky State Board of Accountancy. Exam Requirements If your school uses quarter hours, the board converts them at 66/100ths of a semester hour per quarter hour.3Kentucky.gov. Exam Candidate Overview
You also have to be at least 18 and either a U.S. citizen, a foreign citizen legally residing in the United States, or an employee of a U.S.-based office of a public accounting firm, company, or postsecondary institution.1Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 325.261 – Qualifications for Licensure as Certified Public Accountant Lining up your coursework early, with the 27/12 distribution and the 150-hour total in mind, keeps you from having to return for extra classes after graduation.
Pass the Uniform CPA Examination
The exam has three core sections every candidate takes — Auditing and Attestation (AUD), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR), and Taxation and Regulation (REG) — plus one discipline section you choose from Business Analysis and Reporting (BAR), Information Systems and Control (ISC), or Tax Compliance and Planning (TCP). Each section runs four hours on a computer.4AICPA & CIMA. Everything You Need to Know About the CPA Exam Passing takes a minimum score of 75 per section.5Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. 201 KAR 1:190 – Examination Sections, Applications, and Procedures
The 30-Month Credit Window
Once you pass your first section, a 30-month clock starts. You must pass the remaining three sections within that rolling window or your earliest passing score expires. The period begins on the date NASBA releases your first passing score and ends on the date you sit for your final section. If time runs out, you lose only the earliest credit; sections you passed later keep their own 30-month clocks.6Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. 201 KAR 1:190 – Examination Sections, Applications, and Procedures
Applying and Paying for the Exam
To register, you submit an initial application to the Kentucky State Board of Accountancy with official transcripts sent directly from every college you attended. The board does not accept copies or forwarded documents. Your school or its clearinghouse can mail the transcripts to the board or email them directly, and you’ll need a Social Security number to register.2Kentucky State Board of Accountancy. Exam Requirements
The board charges a one-time $30 processing fee plus $30 for each exam section included with your initial application. After the board approves you, NASBA sends a separate payment coupon covering AICPA, NASBA, and Prometric fees that run about $262.64 per section as of 2025.7Kentucky State Board of Accountancy. CPA Evolution Four sections push the testing bill past $1,000 before you add the board’s application charges.
The application also asks whether you’ve ever been convicted of, pleaded guilty to, or entered a no-contest plea to any felony or misdemeanor other than a minor traffic violation. If so, you submit a criminal record check from the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts (or the equivalent agency in the state where the conviction occurred), dated within six months of your application.8Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. 201 KAR 1:190 – Examination Sections, Applications, and Procedures A record isn’t an automatic disqualification; the board weighs it as part of the “good moral character” requirement.
Complete the AICPA Ethics Course
Before you can be licensed, you have to finish the AICPA’s Professional Ethics: The Comprehensive Course. The self-study program walks through the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and covers scenarios around independence, conflicts of interest, and confidentiality, and you buy it directly from the AICPA. The final exam requires a score of at least 90% to satisfy the licensure requirement.9AICPA & CIMA. Professional Ethics – The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Comprehensive Course The completion certificate goes into your licensing packet.
Log 2,000 Hours of Qualifying Work Experience
You need 2,000 hours of qualifying experience, accumulated over at least 12 months, in an accounting or auditing role at a public accounting firm, in industry, or with a government agency. Leave and holiday time don’t count.10Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. 201 KAR 1:063 – Certificate of Experience
Two timing rules matter. Your experience must come after you finish your bachelor’s or master’s, and it must be earned within five years of the date you pass the CPA Exam. If you miss the five-year window, your exam results no longer count toward licensure.1Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 325.261 – Qualifications for Licensure as Certified Public Accountant
A licensed CPA has to verify your hours by signing a Certificate of Experience that lists your employer’s name and address, your duties, and the verifier’s attestation that the information is accurate.10Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. 201 KAR 1:063 – Certificate of Experience The verifier must have held an active license during the period being verified, but they don’t have to be your direct supervisor or even work at your employer; a CPA licensed in any state qualifies. The certificate has to be mailed as an original or emailed to the board from the verifying CPA’s own email address.11Kentucky.gov. Initial License Part-time work and multiple employers are fine; you can combine certificates to reach 2,000 hours.
Apply for the License
With education, exam, ethics, and experience behind you, you apply through the Kentucky State Board of Accountancy’s online portal. You upload your ethics completion certificate, confirm that your Certificate of Experience is on file, and verify that your exam scores and transcripts are already with the board. The licensing fee is $100. Board staff then confirm every statutory requirement is met, which can take several weeks because applications are processed around the board’s regular meeting schedule. Once approved, you receive your CPA license and the legal right to use the designation in Kentucky.1Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 325.261 – Qualifications for Licensure as Certified Public Accountant Check the application carefully before submitting; corrections afterward slow things down.
Keep the License Active
Kentucky CPA licenses renew every two years, with the online renewal window open from July 1 through July 31 of the renewal year. The standard renewal fee is $100, plus a small portal charge. Miss July 31 and you can still renew through September 1 by paying a $200 late fee. Anything not renewed by September 1 expires, and you have to contact the board about reinstatement.12CPA – Kentucky.gov. License Renewal
Renewal also requires Continuing Professional Education during the two calendar years before your renewal:
- 80 hours if you worked 3,000 or more hours during the reporting period at a public accounting firm licensed with the board.
- 60 hours for all other licensees.
At least two of those hours have to be in professional ethics. The ethics CPE doesn’t have to be Kentucky-specific, and the board accepts ethics courses offered through other states.13Legal Information Institute. 201 KAR 1:100 – Continuing Professional Education Requirements
If You’re Already Licensed in Another State
If you already hold an active CPA license elsewhere and want a full Kentucky license (for example, because you work at a Kentucky-based office), you can apply by reciprocity. You need to meet Kentucky’s education requirements, have passed the Uniform CPA Examination with a score equivalent to Kentucky’s passing standard at the time, hold a valid active license in good standing from another state, and meet the experience requirement. Alternatively, four years of qualifying experience within the ten years before your application can stand in for the standard experience timeline.14Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Revised Statutes 325.301 – Qualifications for Licensure as Certified Public Accountant by Reciprocity and for Foreign Accountants