Whether your busy season is focused on taxes, audits, or financial reporting, the last thing you want to exhaust brain power on that time of year is keeping up with your CPE deadlines and requirements. For CPAs and other financial professionals requiring continuing education, this can become an administrative nightmare. 

In this article, we will look at the State of Michigan CPE requirements for certified public accountants. Each state board of accountancy has slightly different requirements and reporting deadlines, here are Michigan’s:

General Requirements
The Michigan State Board of Accountancy requires CPAs to complete 40 hours of CPE each year. The continuing education reporting period is from 7/1 (July 1st) to 6/30 (June 30th) every year. Depending on the date you first receive your CPA license from the State, you may be exempt from needing CPE in your first year with an active license. Michigan requires CPAs to retain evidence to support the fulfillment of the CPE requirements for 4 years after each reporting deadline.

For more information about the CPE rules in the State of Michigan, see: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/dleg/CONTINUING_EDUCATION_RULES_306253_7.pdf?20150916074803

Subject Requirements
The Michigan State Board of Accountancy requires that certified public accountants obtain a minimum of 8 hours of continuing education in the subject of accounting or auditing each reporting period. CPAs are also required to obtain 2 hours in ethics which can include courses on the code of conduct, ethical reasoning, ethics enforcement, and independence. Every two year reporting period requires 1 hour of ethics CPE to be specific to the State of Michigan rules and regulations. 

License Renewal Date
As documented above, the reporting period every year is from 7/1-6/30. The deadline to submit your paper work to renew your license is December 31st every other year (odd numbered years). At the time of renewal, you are required to document and attest to all of the CPE training you completed in the prior two reporting periods.

Other State Policies
Michigan limits self-study CPE hours to 50% of the total hours required during each reporting period. This means that at least 50% of the continuing education earned by CPAs during each period must come from live events including: webinars, conferences, seminars, etc.

The Michigan Board does allow a maximum of 40 “rollover” CPE hours each year. However, a CPA cannot apply more than 8 hours of the accounting and auditing hours to the subsequent reporting period. There is also a cap of 2 hours on ethics rollover hours to the next period. 

Finding High Quality CPE
When it comes time to find top quality CPE that will meet the MI State Board requirements, look no further than Encoursa. We partner with the top thought leaders in the industry to bring you CPE courses that will not only ensure you meet your continuing education requirements, but also help you advance in your career.