But its only to own a public accounting practice that you would actually need to be licensed in florida, otherwise a license is a license.  Further, the exam scores don't expire in new hampshire and as I understand it, if I meet new hampshires experience requirements they will license me, then all I have to do is finish the florida educational requirements.  thats a piece of cake.

cflas08 wrote: late bloomer wrote: cflas08 wrote: robl45 wrote: as I understand it, you only have to be licensed as a cpa in florida to own a public accounting practice.  So if you are licensed CPA in another state, doesn't really matter. Further, in new hampshire, the experience counts whenever you get it, not only after you finish your classes like idiotic florida.  And when you finish the classes for florida, you just transfer the cpa license.   cflas08 wrote: rudy1094 wrote: Hey if you're in Florida and you want to take the exam in New Hampshire or Maine, how do you do that? Do you have to physically take the test in New Hampshire? I'm in Florida. And no, because the test are computer-based, you can take the test wherever you are. I don't recommend taking the test and being licensed for another state if you are going to reside in Florida. If you don't take the test in Florida, you cannot hold yourself out to be a CPA in the state of Florida. In other words, if you call yourself a CPA and DBPR finds out about it, you will be in trouble. You will be assumed to not be a CPA if you are not licensed in Florida, even if you are licensed in another state. So think about that before you go down that road. I have to take two more accounting courses to get my license as well as obtain the 1 year experience. It's all worth it though since I will be residing in Florida. I gathered from DBPR's website that you cannot advertise yourself as a CPA, period. I will check with the FICPA to be sure. But from the research I did, you need to be licensed in the state you will be residing in if you're going to be calling yourself a CPA. If you're not going to be holding yourself out as a CPA then I guess it doesn't matter. If I'm wrong, heck I will prefer to get my license through Colorado so I won't have to go back to school. But I'm almost positive whether you own a public firm or not, you still need to be licensed in Florida to call yourself a CPA down here. _____________________________________  ADDED AFTERWARDS: I called DBPR and they said if you are going to operate in Florida as a CPA, you MUST be licensed down here and meet the requirements to become licensed. So taking your exam and getting licensed in Colorado for example, is a huge waste because you will still have to meet Florida's requirements to become licensed. So you may as well just take Florida's exam unless you have immediate plans to move to the state you're getting your license from. But, you can save your exam score from expiration. FL require to apply for a license within 1 year. Otherwise, your exam score will expire and you will need to retake the exam. However, if you are licensed in another state, you don't fall under this **crazy** statute. Am I right? You're right. But, the candidate will still have to meet Florida's 150 credit hour requirement and work experience requirement. So, the original point was why bother getting licensed in another state with less strict educational and work requirements when you will still have to meet Florida's requirements in order to qualify for endorsement.   :-) You gotta love Florida!

Florida's rules:

1) You must have 120 hours to sit for the exam, with 24 of those hours being upper division accounting courses

2) You must have 150 credit hours to apply for the license, 36 of those being upper division accounting courses. You cannot apply for the license until you have the 150 credit hours.

3) You must have 1 year of work experience which was supervised by a CPA to be granted the CPA license.

4) Upon passing all 4 parts of the CPA exam, you have 1 year to apply for the license. Once you apply for the license, you don't have to worry about your grades expiring.

5) It does not matter whether you receive your work experience before the exam, after the exam, or during the exam. As long as it equals 52 weeks of full time work, you're okay. You don't have to wait until you have the experience to apply for the license. You just have to make sure you APPLY within 1 year.

My situation is crazy. Once I pass the CPA exam, I have to go back to school to take two accounting classes for my 150 credit hours before I can apply for the license; I have to do this within a year. It will be more than a year after passing the CPA exam before I get my 1 year work experience.

 I hope this clears up the confusion about Florida.

robl45 wrote: you cannot get the work experience in florida until you meet the educational requirements.

Where did you see that information at? There are firms that will hire those who only have 120 hours as an accounting major. But there are many firms that will only hire those who have the 150. You cannot apply for the CPA license until you meet the educational requirements. There is no relation to how many hours you have and the work experience. There is the assumption though that a bachelor's degree has been obtained.