CTEC qualifying education
Review the planned 60-hour California tax-preparer pathway while provider approval, course approval, and reporting remain visible launch gates.
California qualification roadmap
This pathway generally applies to paid California preparers who are not exempt CPAs, enrolled agents, attorneys, or specified banking or trust officials.
Use the FTB and CTEC definitions to determine whether the planned paid tax-preparation work requires registration or falls within a listed exemption.
Finish a qualifying-education course from a CTEC-approved provider within the required period and retain the provider's completion evidence.
Purchase and maintain the current $5,000 bond from an authorized insurance or surety source.
Secure the federal Preparer Tax Identification Number and complete California fingerprinting under the current registration instructions.
Complete the online new-preparer application, pay the current charges, and resolve any background or documentation issue before preparing returns for a fee.
Complete at least 20 hours of approved annual continuing education in the required subject mix, renew the bond and PTIN as applicable, and renew CTEC registration on time.
Official California requirements
Reviewed July 21, 2026
California generally requires non-exempt paid tax preparers to register with CTEC. The planned 101PD course cannot issue qualifying-education credit until the provider and course approval path is complete.
Authority: California Franchise Tax Board and California Tax Education Council (CTEC)
Agency rules control. Requirements can change and individual eligibility varies. 101PD identifies each course as training, application-pending, or approved; it does not treat exam preparation as statutory credit unless the named authority has approved that specific course and provider.
Choose your licensing stage
Planned 60-hour CTEC qualifying education; no credit is promised before approval. Colors identify the stage; they never imply approval.
Prelicensing
Practice/training material. Not approved for CE/MCLE/CPE credit. No credit hours are issued.Available soon - join the waitlist
California CTEC Tax Preparer 60-Hour Qualifying Education with honest content status, California-specific scope, and server-controlled launch pricing.
$0 / Free
60 hours
View detailsWhat the learning experience includes
A plain-language path from education through exam readiness and renewal, separated by the stage of the license.
Every course page exposes learning objectives, a section-level syllabus, sample material, assessment rules, and FAQs.
Quizzes support learning; server-graded finals, timers, retries, and recovery rules follow the applicable track configuration.
Resume reading and learning from the account portal, with state, deadlines, and completion evidence calculated by the server.
Drafting, training, application-pending, and approved states are never blended together or hidden behind a sales claim.
Downloadable certificates, verification pages, and regulator instructions appear only in the form the course status permits.
Course-level detail
60 hours · Qualifying Education · Content in production
How 101PD works
Start with prelicensing, exam preparation, or continuing education.
Read its syllabus, sample, status, hours, assessment format, and package relationships.
Published content opens the appropriate free path. Drafting content accepts a deduplicated availability request.
Resume from the portal, complete the configured assessments, and receive the permitted completion evidence.
Common questions
101PD is in its free launch period. Future prices are stored, but public payment links remain disabled until every approval and payment gate passes.
The public outline is ready, but the full learning content is still in production. Join that page's waitlist; enrollment cannot open until its content status is Published.
No. They serve different stages of a license. This page keeps them together for comparison while every card states its own purpose and credit status.
Training completions receive an honest training certificate. Regulator-credit certificates are issued only when the specific course and provider approval permit them.
When a defensible public comparison exists, the product card names the provider, comparable offer, checked date, and source price. It is context only: the 101PD launch price remains $0 and a comparison never creates approval or enrollment rights.
Payment links stay server-disabled while a course is drafting, while a regulated provider or course approval is pending, or while the required reporting and certificate workflow has not passed end-to-end verification.