How to Become a CPA in Michigan: Education, Exam, and Experience

To become a CPA in Michigan, you need to complete 150 semester hours of college credit, pass all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination, log at least 2,000 hours of qualifying work experience verified by a licensed CPA, pass the AICPA Professional Ethics exam, and submit a $300 license application to the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) through its MiPLUS portal. Most candidates get through the whole sequence in six to eight years from their first college accounting course.

Education: 120 Hours to Test, 150 Hours to License

Michigan uses two separate education thresholds, and understanding the gap between them is what lets you start testing early instead of waiting until every credit is finished.

120 Hours to Sit for the Exam

You can sit for the Uniform CPA Exam once you’ve completed 120 semester hours at a regionally accredited college or university with a concentration in accounting. That concentration has to include at least 24 semester hours of accounting coursework covering accounting information systems, auditing and attestation, cost or managerial accounting, financial accounting and reporting, governmental or fund accounting, and taxation.¹ You also need 24 semester hours of general business courses outside accounting, in areas like economics, finance, business law, and management.

You don’t need the bachelor’s degree in hand to test. You just need the 120 hours of required coursework completed. That lets you knock out exam sections while you’re still working on the remaining credits for licensure.

150 Hours to Get Licensed

Before LARA will issue the certificate, you need 150 semester hours of academic credit. Michigan accepts two routes for the upper-level work inside that total:²

A master’s degree in accounting, or an MBA that includes at least 12 semester hours of graduate accounting courses (not counting tax or information systems courses).
An academic route of 30 semester hours of accounting subjects (no more than six in taxation), plus 39 additional semester hours spread across at least five of these areas: business law, economics, ethics, finance, management, marketing, taxation, statistics, and business policy. You need three to twelve hours in each area you count.

Credit only counts once. If LARA’s Bureau of Professional Licensing finds two courses overlap, only one goes toward the total. Most candidates close the gap between 120 and 150 with a master’s program or a post-baccalaureate certificate, but any accredited coursework works if it fits the distribution.

The Uniform CPA Exam

The exam has three mandatory core sections and one discipline section you choose.

The three cores:

Auditing and Attestation (AUD): audit procedures, professional responsibilities, and ethics in audit engagements.
Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR): financial statements, GAAP, and governmental accounting.
Regulation (REG): federal taxation, business law, and professional ethics.

For your fourth section, pick one:

Business Analysis and Reporting (BAR)
Information Systems and Controls (ISC)
Tax Compliance and Planning (TCP)

You can take the four sections in any order. Passing score is 75 on each. Once you pass your first section, you have 30 months to pass the other three. Miss that window and the oldest passed section expires, meaning you’d have to retake it.¹

NASBA handles registration, scheduling, and score reporting through its CPA Portal. For 2026, the recommended fee runs about $358.64 per section, combining a $262.64 exam fee and a $96.00 registration fee. Four sections total roughly $1,434 in exam fees before you add any review course.

2,000 Hours of Work Experience

The exam proves you know the material. The experience proves you can use it. Michigan Administrative Code R 338.5117 requires at least 2,000 hours of qualifying experience earned over no less than one calendar year and no more than five.³ A licensed CPA has to verify every hour on a form prescribed by the department.

The work doesn’t have to be in public accounting. Michigan accepts experience from government, industry, academia, or public practice, provided it falls into recognized categories:⁴

Audit and attestation work: financial statement audits, reviews, compilations with full disclosure, and compliance audits.
Tax work: preparing income and nonprofit returns, documented tax research, and representing clients before government agencies on tax matters.
Advisory and analytical work: financial forecasts and projections, management advisory services including business valuation and forensic accounting, and managing accounting functions for profit or nonprofit entities.
Internal audit performed as an independent function.
Government audit work: compliance audits of government contracts or audits done on behalf of a government agency that produce an opinion or report.

What doesn’t count: bookkeeping, recruiting, industrial engineering, administration, and appraisals.⁵ If a job title sounds right but the actual duties are mostly data entry or administrative support, those hours won’t qualify. The supervising CPA who signs your form is vouching for the substance of the work.

AICPA Professional Ethics Exam

Before you apply for the license, you have to pass the AICPA Professional Ethics: Comprehensive Course. It’s a self-study course on the ethical and legal duties that attach to a CPA license. For initial licensure, the passing score is 90 percent.⁶ You can retake it if you fall short, and you’ll upload proof of the score with your application.

Submitting the License Application

With four sections passed, 2,000 verified hours, your ethics score, and 150 semester hours in the bank, you apply through MiPLUS, LARA’s online licensing portal.⁷ Create an account, choose “apply for a new license,” and upload supporting documents.

Have these ready before you start:

Official transcripts from every institution you attended, sent directly to the Bureau of Professional Licensing to confirm you hit 150 hours.
A Certificate of Experience form completed by your supervising CPA, including that CPA’s license number and a detailed accounting of your 2,000 hours. The form is on LARA’s website.
Documentation of your passing AICPA ethics exam score.
A good moral character disclosure. Michigan requires it under MCL 339.725(1)(a). You’ll answer questions about criminal history and prior discipline. A conviction isn’t automatic disqualification, but you must disclose honestly.⁴

The application fee is $300 for a two-year license, paid by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover.⁸ Make sure the name on every document matches your legal name exactly; mismatches delay processing. Average turnaround is four to six weeks, and it goes faster when LARA has every required document in the initial submission.⁷

Already Licensed in Another State

If you already hold a CPA license somewhere else, you have two options. If your principal place of business stays outside Michigan and your home-state license is substantially equivalent to Michigan’s, you can practice in Michigan without a separate license, a fee, or a notice under MCL 339.727a.⁹ If you’re moving to Michigan or want a Michigan license for other reasons, you apply through MiPLUS as a reciprocal applicant for the same $300 fee, submitting license verification from your home jurisdiction and showing either equivalent education at the time of your original certificate or four years of qualifying experience within the past ten.⁸

Keeping the License: Renewal and CPE

Michigan CPA licenses expire July 31 every two years, and renewal costs $200.¹⁰ You need 40 hours of continuing professional education each year during the July 1 through June 30 CPE period, with at least eight hours in accounting and auditing and at least two hours in ethics. Across each two-year cycle, one of the four total ethics hours has to be the Michigan Specific Ethics course delivered through the Michigan Association of CPAs. Hold onto CPE records for at least four years in case LARA audits you. If you’re a Michigan licensee working out of state, you can satisfy CPE by meeting the rules of the state where your principal office sits; if that state has none, Michigan’s 40-hour standard applies.

1
NASBA. Michigan
2
State of Michigan. Michigan Accountant (CPA) Professional Licensing Guide
3
Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. Mich Admin Code R 338.5117 – Certificate of Certified Public Accountant Qualifying Experience
4
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 339.725 – Issuance of Certificate as Certified Public Accountant
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 339.725 – Issuance of Certificate as Certified Public Accountant
6
AICPA & CIMA. Professional Ethics: The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Comprehensive Course
7
State of Michigan. MiPLUS User Assistance
8
State of Michigan. Michigan Licensed Accountant (CPA) Licensing Guide
9
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 339.727a – Individual Whose Principal Place of Business Is Outside of State
10
State of Michigan. Renewing a License