Section 16-71-33 - Basic requirements of study hours(a) For a permit to practice public accountancy covering each biennium, an individual applicant shall file, together with the application and payment of a fee for a permit to practice, an attestation as to the completion of at least eighty hours in continuing professional education programs. The eighty hours shall have been earned by the applicant within a twenty-four-month period, and within twenty-four months prior to the date of the application for a permit to practice, with a minimum of twenty hours earned within each calendar year.(b) The applicant shall include within the eighty hours of continuing professional education programs, at least four hours of continuing professional education in the subject area of ethics or professional conduct; provided that these hours may also be used to simultaneously fulfill the requirements to renew the license of a certified public accountant or public accountant under section 16-71-2.(c) The continuing professional education requirement of eighty hours may be prorated only for the permit obtained for the biennium period immediately following an individual's first permit to practice. The proration schedule shall be ten hours for each three-month period of the biennium. The number of hours required shall be determined by the date on which the individual's first permit to practice was approved.(d) An applicant whose first permit was approved in the first three months of the biennium shall earn eighty hours to obtain the subsequent permit; an applicant whose first permit was approved in the second three months of the biennium shall earn seventy hours to obtain the subsequent permit; and the total hours required shall decrease by ten hours for each three month period to a minimum of ten hours for an applicant whose first permit was approved in the last three months of the biennium period. [Eff 1/1/74; am and ren § 16-71-33, 6/25/81; am and comp 6/8/84; am and comp 10/23/87; am and comp 2/22/94; comp 6/3/95; comp 1/22/01; am and comp 1/30/10; comp 2/13/12] (Auth: HRS § 466-4) (Imp: HRS § 466-7)