Obviously, your required study time will be dependent on whether you have prior knowledge of Business Law and/or U.S. Taxation. (Please note that IQEX only requires entry-level knowledge of U.S. taxation matters. Accordingly, the CPA-NOW course is not designed to provide the expertise needed to handle “real-life” client situations. See FAQs for more details.)
Assuming you have no prior knowledge about any of the topics in the IQEX Syllabus, the following is an estimate of the average study time requirement after an initial review of the material or the 3-day course:
| Subject Area | Total Hours |
|---|---|
| Business Law | 23 |
| Ethics | 7 |
| Federal Taxation | 26 |
| Corporate Governance | 2 |
| Accounting and Reporting for Governmental Entities and Non-Profit Organizations | 12* |
| 70 |
* Based on past experience, most Canadian CAs are unfamiliar with Governmental Accounting. You may decide to reduce your time budget on this topic since you can expect it to comprise no more than 4% of IQEX. Instead, you may decide to devote an extra 6-8 hours to Business Law and/or Federal Taxation. (By way of contrast, you will find the Non-Profit issues very easy to grasp.)