Louisiana CPA CPE: 80 Hours Rolling, December 31

Louisiana CPA CPE Requirements at a Glance

Louisiana CPAs must complete 80 continuing professional education (CPE) hours over a rolling 2-year calendar period and renew their license annually by December 31. Licenses are regulated by the Louisiana State Board of CPAs at cpaboard.state.la.us.

Louisiana's system differs from most states in two important ways. First, it is annual renewal — not biennial — meaning every December 31, your license must be renewed. Second, CPE compliance is measured on a rolling 2-year basis: the Board evaluates hours from the current calendar year combined with the prior calendar year. This means no year can be skipped — a hard 20-hour annual minimum applies to each calendar year regardless of how many hours you banked the year before.

The Rolling 2-Year System Explained

Louisiana's rolling CPE window is often misunderstood. Here is exactly how it works:

• At December 31, 2026 renewal: The Board counts CPE from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2026 (combined = must be ≥ 80 hours).
• At December 31, 2027 renewal: The Board counts CPE from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2027 (combined = must be ≥ 80 hours).
• Annual floor, every year: You must complete at least 20 hours in each individual calendar year regardless of rolling total.
• No carryover: Excess hours from one year do not roll into the next. 36 hours in 2025 ≠ 16 bonus hours toward 2026.

Annual Minimum: 20 Hours Per Year

Unlike Colorado or many biennial states that let you load hours unevenly across the period, Louisiana imposes a mandatory 20-hour annual floor. You cannot complete zero hours in 2025 and 80 hours in 2026 — each year must independently meet the 20-hour minimum.

This requirement makes Louisiana CPE planning more regimented. Interactive self-study from NASBA Registry-registered providers is the most efficient way to fill the annual floor, particularly for CPAs in years when they have fewer conferences or employer-sponsored training opportunities.

Ethics Requirement: 3 Hours in Even-Numbered Years

Louisiana's ethics CPE schedule is tied to the calendar year parity:

• Even years (2026, 2028, 2030…): 3 hours of Board-approved ethics CPE required.
• Odd years (2025, 2027, 2029…): No ethics CPE required (though it may still count toward total hours if taken).

The ethics course must be from a provider specifically pre-approved by the Louisiana State Board of CPAs. This is stricter than states that accept any NASBA-registered ethics course. The Society of Louisiana CPAs (LCPA) at lcpa.org is the primary approved source for ethics courses meeting Board requirements. Verify current approved providers directly with the Board before enrolling.

Attest Engagement Requirement: 8 Hours A&A Per Year

Louisiana CPAs who perform attest engagements — audits, reviews, compilations, agreed-upon procedures — face an additional annual requirement: 8 hours of Accounting and Auditing (A&A) CPE per year.

Key facts about the A&A requirement:

• It is annual, not rolling. Missing the A&A requirement in one year cannot be offset by extra A&A hours in another year.
• A&A hours count toward your 20-hour annual minimum and your 80-hour rolling total — they are not additive.
• The LCPA's annual A&A conference and AICPA's accounting and auditing programs are popular approved sources.
• Yellow Book (Government Auditing Standards) practitioners face the GAO's separate 80-hour/2-year CPE requirement on top of Louisiana state requirements.

Category Limits and Caps

Louisiana imposes per-year caps on non-technical CPE categories. These caps are annual and non-carryover:

Interactive self-study programs must provide "ongoing questions and evaluative feedback" to qualify. Programs that simply present content without checkpoints or final exams may fall into the published materials category instead, triggering the 10-hour cap.

No Carryover Rule

Louisiana's no-carryover policy is one of the strictest among December 31 states. Hours earned and not used in one calendar year are forfeited entirely. This creates three practical constraints:

1. Completing significantly more than 40 hours in one year does not reduce the obligation in the next — target 40 hours per year, not 80 in one year.
2. Category-capped hours (published materials, personal development) that exceed caps in a given year are also forfeited — check caps before allocating hours.
3. Hours completed but not reported by the January 31 reporting deadline cannot be claimed retroactively in later years.

Approved CPE Providers

Louisiana accepts CPE from providers registered with the NASBA National Registry of CPE Sponsors, AICPA-member programs, university courses for academic credit, and qualifying in-house employer programs. For the ethics requirement, only Louisiana State Board of CPAs pre-approved providers qualify.

Popular Louisiana CPA CPE sources:

• Society of Louisiana CPAs (LCPA) — lcpa.org. Conferences, webinars, ethics courses. Primary source for Board-approved ethics.
• AICPA — aicpa-cima.com. Broad technical catalog covering A&A, tax, advisory, and ethics.
• Surgent CPE, Becker, WebCE, CPE Link — NASBA-registered on-demand self-study. Efficient for filling annual hours and closing last-minute gaps.
• Employer in-house training — qualifies if it meets NASBA instructional standards (learning objectives, qualified instructor, evaluative component).

How Louisiana Compares to Gulf Coast and Neighboring States

Multi-state CPAs holding Louisiana licenses alongside Mississippi or Arkansas licenses face back-to-back December 31 deadlines in both states, though the total hour obligations differ. Louisiana's rolling 2-year system is the most complex of the Gulf Coast states and requires the most careful annual tracking.

Reporting Deadline: January 31

Louisiana separates the CPE completion deadline (December 31) from the CPE reporting deadline (January 31). All qualifying CPE must be completed by December 31, but you have until January 31 of the following year to enter and submit your hours in the Louisiana State Board of CPAs online portal.

This one-month window is for administrative reporting only — it does not extend the time to complete courses. CPAs who have not finished their CPE by December 31 cannot use the January 31 window to complete new courses; they are already in violation.

Step-by-Step: Completing Your Louisiana CPE Before December 31

1. Confirm your rolling total and annual floor: Check cpaboard.state.la.us to verify your license status and review your CPE transcript. Identify your combined hours for the rolling 2-year window and confirm you have at least 20 hours in the current calendar year.
2. Complete your ethics course (even years — required in 2026): Book a Board-approved 3-hour ethics course from LCPA or another pre-approved provider. Complete it by December 31. Do not substitute a non-approved ethics course.
3. Complete A&A hours if you perform attest work: Schedule at least 8 hours of Accounting and Auditing CPE for the year. Prioritize this in Q1 or Q2 — A&A shortfalls cannot be corrected retroactively.
4. Fill remaining hours with technical and interactive self-study: Technical subjects and interactive self-study have no cap. Use NASBA-registered on-demand platforms to close your annual gap efficiently. Target completing all CPE by November 30 to leave buffer time.
5. Watch category caps: Published materials cap at 10 hours per year; personal development, teaching, and credential prep each cap at 20 hours per year. Excess in any capped category is forfeited.
6. Report all hours by January 31: Log into cpaboard.state.la.us and enter your CPE details before January 31. Upload completion certificates or be prepared to produce them for a CPE audit. Retain all records for at least 5 years.

Louisiana CPE FAQ