Taxation Requirements for the CPA Examination and the Content of Undergraduate Accounting Curricula.

Abstract The Board of Examiners of the AICPA recently adopted a memorandum indicating that every CPA examination shall contain two questions in the Accounting Practice section of the exam covering the area of Federal income taxation. The memorandum also lists the tax topics that may be tested on the exam. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted to determine whether the undergraduate accounting curricula of colleges and universities include courses covering the tax topics listed in the memorandum. In addition, the minimum number of tax credits or courses (if any) that each Board of Public Accountancy requires its CPA candidates to complete in order to qualify for the CPA examination is presented. The results suggest that most Boards of Public Accountancy do not require CPA candidates to complete any taxation courses and the undergraduate accounting curricula of most of the colleges and universities surveyed do not require, nor make available, tax courses covering many of the tax topics that may be tested on the CPA examination.