South Dakota CPA CPE Requirements: How Many Hours, By When
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- 20-hour minimum in each 1-year period (you can't front-load the whole requirement into a single year).
Sourcing note: The 120-hour/3-year total is confirmed in both SDCL 36-20B-27's statutory text ("120 hours of continuing education in each three-year renewal period") and the board's own FAQ. The 20-hour annual minimum appears only on the board's FAQ -- it is not stated in the statute or anywhere in the administrative rule chapter governing continuing education (ARSD 20:75:04). That chapter's only annual-hour schedules apply to certificate holders phasing in during their first three-year cycle (20:75:04:07) or returning after a lapsed certificate (20:75:04:08), not to ordinary ongoing renewal. It comes from the board itself, so plan to report at least 20 hours each year; the gap here is that we can't point to codified text for it, not that it's optional. (Last checked 2026-11-08.)
South Dakota CPAs on active status must complete 120 hours of CPE in each rolling three-year renewal period, with the board's own FAQ stating a minimum of 20 hours must be reported each year. There is no separate ongoing ethics-CPE-hour mandate -- South Dakota only requires the one-time AICPA ethics exam at initial licensure, not recurring ethics CPE. The correct general-renewal authority is SDCL 36-20B-27, not the administrative rule governing the first (initial-certificate phase-in) renewal only.
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