2025 · Regular session · Senate bill
SB262
SB262 adds a second education-and-experience route to a Texas CPA certificate: a qualifying bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration or equivalent coursework, plus two years of board-accepted experience.
Official caption: Relating to eligibility requirements to practice public accountancy.
Official report lists Senate author(s): Perry. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- SB262 adds a second education-and-experience route to a Texas CPA certificate: a qualifying bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration or equivalent coursework, plus two years of board-accepted experience.
- The new route does not waive the uniform CPA exam, the professional-conduct exam, background requirements or board-approved education standards.
- For completed CPA exams taken in another state, the board may accept credit if the existing exam-provider condition is met and the applicant satisfied Texas requirements when the credit was earned, now expressly as determined by board rule.
What does it do?
SB262 adds a second education-and-experience route to a Texas CPA certificate: a qualifying bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration or equivalent coursework, plus two years of board-accepted experience. It preserves the existing 150-semester-hour route, which uses the existing experience requirements. Signed May 8, 2025, the law took effect August 1, 2026. Final law; Official history.
The new route does not waive the uniform CPA exam, the professional-conduct exam, background requirements or board-approved education standards. Existing law required at least one year of acceptable experience for someone with 150 college credit hours or a graduate degree; the new bachelor’s route specifically requires two years. Passing the exam alone does not confer a certificate. Existing experience law.
For completed CPA exams taken in another state, the board may accept credit if the existing exam-provider condition is met and the applicant satisfied Texas requirements when the credit was earned, now expressly as determined by board rule. For partial credit, it retains the active-credit and exam-provider requirements and allows the comparison with the other state’s standards to include Texas board rules as well as the statute. These are conditional credit-transfer provisions, not automatic recognition of every out-of-state license. The board must adopt necessary implementing rules. Sections 3–5.
What changed along the way?
All five posted versions retain the same substantive education, experience and credit-transfer changes. The introduced bill proposed September 1, 2025; the Senate committee substitute moved that date to January 1, 2027. Perry’s sole indexed floor amendment, adopted March 11, changed it to August 1, 2026. That date survived the House and enrollment. Text versions; Amendment index; Amendment text.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
The latest posted fiscal note, April 22, 2025, anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact and assumes costs can be absorbed with existing resources. It explains that the accountancy board funds its own operations, cannot cause costs to the General Revenue Fund and is outside the legislative budgeting process. The February 17 and February 28 notes give the same overall assessment. This is not a promise of no administrative expense. Latest fiscal note.
Applicants who can meet the new bachelor’s-degree requirements may avoid extra coursework needed solely to reach 150 hours, but must obtain two years of acceptable experience and satisfy all remaining requirements. Employers may gain another route for developing qualified staff. The sources do not estimate tuition savings, wages, the number of additional CPAs or effects on service quality. Eligibility and experience provisions.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
