How much continuing professional education a Maine CPA actually needs — sourced the same way every fact on this site is: a board page plus the codified rule itself, never a guess.
Unlike most states, Maine's basic CPE cycle is ANNUAL, not biennial: all licensees must obtain 40 hours of CPE every year (the 12-month licensure period prior to the Sept 30/renewal reporting deadline), due at time of renewal; up to 20 excess hours may carry forward one year. Separately, all licensees must obtain at least 4 hours of CPE in professional ethics every THREE years (not annually, not per-2-year-cycle). Confirmed by reading the full text of 02-280 C.M.R. Chapter 5, Section 8 (Maine's own Board of Accountancy rule, hosted at maine.gov), which is the authority cited by the Board's own official CE webpage. Interpretation trap: Maine's rule also has an unrelated 'reinstatement' provision requiring 80 hours of CPE (incl. 4 ethics hours) within the prior 24 months for lapsed-license reinstatement -- some vendor summaries wrongly present this 80-hour/24-month figure as if it were the standard annual renewal requirement; it is not. Communication arts/computer software/economics/business-law/etc. courses capped at 50% of hours.
What does it cost to reinstate a lapsed Maine license? →