How to Become a CPA in New Mexico 2024

To meet the New Mexico requirements to sit for the CPA exam, the New Mexico CPA education requirements must be attained first. For New Mexico applicants,, you must have a bachelor’s degree and earn a total of 150 semester hours. The 150 hours need to include 30 hours in accounting, and no more than three hours of the 30 hours may be in business law.

To apply for the CPA examination in New Mexico, you need to create an account on NASBA’s CPA Central website. Then you’ll need to complete your application form online, submit your transcripts, and pay the applicable fees.
If you are a first-time applicant, you must pay both the education evaluation application fee of $90 and an examination fee of $354.80 per section at the time of application.

Click here to see a breakdown of the New Mexico CPA exam costs.

Once your application has been approved, you can select the CPA exam you want to take and pay the necessary fees using NASBA’s CPA Central website. Once you receive the Notice to Schedule (NTS), you may visit Prometric to schedule your exam/s.

The CPA exam consists of the three core sections and candidates would need to select one of the three discipline to demonstrate deeper skills and knowledge, allowing candidates to choose a specialization. There is no set order in which the exam portions must be completed. You must pass each section with a score of 75 or higher within 18 months.

After passing the CPA exam, the candidate must also meet the New Mexico CPA ethics exam requirements by taking one additional test: the AICPA Professional Ethics Exam with a 90% or higher passing score.

To meet the New Mexico CPA experience requirements, you need one year of full-time experience in one or more of the following areas: accounting, attestations, management advisory, financial advisory, tax, information systems, or consulting skills and must be verified by a certified public accountant licensed in the US jurisdiction.

Once you have met all the requirements and paid the licensure application fee, you may apply for your CPA license through the office of the New Mexico Public Accountancy Board.

To maintain your New Mexico CPA license, you will need to renew your license every three years by completing the required amount of continuing professional education (CPE) hours. New Mexico Board of Accountancy requires 120 CPE credits to be completed in the calendar year prior to renewal of the license, and they must include 20 CPE hours completed every year, four ethics hours completed for a full 36 month reporting cycle, and at least 96 of the 12 CPE hours must be technical hours which include: accounting, accounting – governmental, administrative practice, auditing, auditing – governmental, business law, business evaluation, computer courses, computer science, economics, ethics (behavioral and regulatory), finance, fraud examination, litigation, management advisory services, mathematics, production, specialized knowledge and application statistics, or taxes. 24 hours can be on non-technical subjects, including business management and organization, communications, employee management, firm management, marketing, personal/HR, personal development, or the social environment of business.