CPA Exam Changes in 2025 and 2026: The Complete Guide

The CPA exam is in the middle of its busiest stretch of change in years. The headline redesign, CPA Evolution, landed in 2024, but the updates that quietly move your score are the ones that came after it: refreshed blueprints, a wave of new auditing standards that are now fair game, a higher Single Audit threshold, and a longer window to finish. This guide walks through every change that matters for candidates sitting in 2025 and 2026, with the effective date and a practical “what do I actually study” takeaway for each.

The changes at a glance

The structure: CPA Evolution's Core + Discipline model

Since January 2024, the exam has used a new four-section model instead of the old fixed lineup. Every candidate takes three Core sections, AUD (Auditing and Attestation), FAR (Financial Accounting and Reporting), and REG (Taxation and Regulation), and then picks one Discipline from three options:

• BAR, Business Analysis and Reporting
• ISC, Information Systems and Controls
• TCP, Tax Compliance and Planning

You still earn one CPA license no matter which Discipline you choose, it doesn't limit what you can practice. Most candidates pick the Discipline that overlaps their Core strengths: BAR pairs naturally with FAR, TCP with REG, and ISC with AUD. The old BEC section is gone; its content was spread across the Core and the Disciplines.

More time to finish: the 30-month credit window

One of the most candidate-friendly changes has nothing to do with content. NASBA amended its model rule to extend conditional credit from 18 months to 30 months, measured from the date each section's score is released. Pass a section and you now have 30 months , not 18, to pass the remaining three before that first credit expires. Because licensing rules are set by each state board, adoption is happening jurisdiction by jurisdiction, so confirm the window with your own board of accountancy before you plan around it.

The January 2025 blueprint refinements

The blueprints are the AICPA's official map of what each section tests. The version effective January 1, 2025 was a refinement, not a redesign, but each Core section shifted in some way:

• AUD: references were updated to reflect the current quality management standards, representative tasks were clarified to emphasize entity-level controls, and examples were added in select areas.
• FAR: references to outdated guidance were removed, two representative tasks on fair value measurement were removed, and one task was added, part of the ongoing effort to keep FAR's scope manageable.
• REG: the blueprint was restructured so it does not have to be reissued every time new tax legislation becomes testable. Tax-law provisions with 2024 and 2025 effective dates are scheduled to become eligible for testing in REG starting July 1, 2026.

The auditing-standards wave on AUD

AUD changed the most under the hood. Three updates are now testable, and each one directly contradicts material that older prep courses still teach:

• SAS 145 rewrote risk assessment (AU-C 315): inherent and control risk are assessed separately, control risk is set at maximum unless you test controls, inherent risk sits on a spectrum, and a “significant risk” is now defined as inherent risk near the upper end of that spectrum.
• SQMS No. 1 and No. 2, SAS No. 146, and SSARS No. 26 replaced the old quality control framework. The six elements of quality control are gone, replaced by a risk-based system of quality management with eight components.
• SAS 147 requires the successor auditor to inquire of the predecessor about fraud and noncompliance with laws and regulations before accepting an engagement.

Each of these is worth real points, and the AICPA writes wrong answers straight from the superseded rules. We cover all three in depth, with the exact MCQ traps, in the new auditing standards on the CPA AUD exam.

The Single Audit threshold jumped to $1 million

The 2024 revision of the Uniform Guidance raised the Single Audit threshold from $750,000 to $1,000,000 of federal awards expended, effective for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024. The Type A program threshold rose to $1 million as well, the de minimis indirect cost rate went from 10% to 15%, and the equipment capitalization threshold doubled from $5,000 to $10,000. The full breakdown, plus the major-program coverage rule the exam loves to reverse, is in the Single Audit threshold guide.

How to know when a new rule becomes testable

You can work this out yourself. The AICPA makes an accounting or auditing pronouncement eligible for testing in the later of (1) the first calendar quarter beginning after the standard's earliest mandatory effective date, or (2) the first calendar quarter beginning six months after issuance. For tax-law and other federal-law changes, the window is the calendar quarter beginning six months after the effective (or enactment) date. The rule of thumb: if a standard took effect more than six months ago, assume it's testable and study the new version.

What's still coming

• SAS 149 (group audits), a risk-based overhaul of AU-C 600 that distinguishes component auditors from referred-to auditors. Effective for periods ending on or after December 15, 2026, so it generally enters the testing window in 2027. Until then, the current AU-C 600 group-audit rules apply.
• Tax legislation in REG and TCP, recent federal tax-law changes with 2024 and 2025 effective dates are scheduled to become testable starting July 1, 2026, so REG and TCP candidates sitting in the back half of 2026 should study from updated tax materials.

Frequently asked questions