A California CPA license expires every two years at midnight on the last day of the licensee’s birth month, in even years for people born in an even year and odd years for people born in an odd year. To renew in active status you need 80 hours of continuing education completed inside the two-year period before expiration, at least 20 of them in each year and 12 of those 20 technical, with four hours of ethics, a two-hour Board-approved regulatory review course every six years, and 24 hours of accounting and auditing plus four of fraud if you signed attest reports. The renewal fee for a license that expires after June 30, 2026 is $400, plus a 2.3% card fee in CBA Connect, and a $200 delinquency fee attaches if payment is not received within 30 days of expiration. Since January 2026 you certify completion rather than listing courses, and the Board audits a sample, so the certificates have to be kept for four years.
Everything below is taken from the California Board of Accountancy’s renewal pages, its renewal overview, and Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations, read October 19, 2026 and linked at the end. The last section covers the one question that comes up on nearly every first call with a selling owner: which license status to hold through the transition.
- 01Expiration: the last day of your birth month, every other year, matching the parity of your birth year. Renewal opens in CBA Connect 90 days before. The reminder letter is a courtesy; non-receipt does not waive the late fee.
- 02CE for active renewal: 80 hours in the two-year period, at least 40 technical, at least 20 in each year with 12 technical, 4 hours of ethics, a 2-hour regulatory review course every six years. No carryover between periods.
- 03If you planned, performed or reported on an audit, review, compilation or attestation: 24 hours of A&A plus 4 hours of fraud. Government audits: 24 hours of government auditing plus 4 of fraud. Preparation engagements as the highest service: 8 hours plus 4 of fraud.
- 04Fee: $400 for a CPA license expiring after June 30, 2026 ($340 before), plus 2.3% on card payments from July 1, 2026. Delinquency fee $200 after 30 days. Firm licenses (COR and PAR): $520, delinquency $260.
- 05Statuses: active (practice), inactive (same fee, no CE, no practice, “inactive” after the title), retired (20 years licensed, 5 active in California, $75 once, no fee and no CE at renewal), expired (renewable for five years with all fees).
When your license expires, and when you can renew
The Board sets the expiration date from two facts about you. The month is your birth month, and the license expires at midnight on its last day. The year is every other year on the parity of your birth year: born in an even year, the license expires in even years; born in an odd year, in odd years. A licensee born in March 1970 has a license that expires March 31, 2026, then March 31, 2028. The date is printed on the pocket identification card and shown in the Board’s license lookup.
Renewal is done in CBA Connect, the Board’s online account; a paper application is no longer mailed. The “Renew” button appears on the dashboard 90 days before expiration, which is also when the Board mails a reminder to the address of record. The Board says in the same breath that the reminder is a courtesy: it has no authority to waive the delinquency fee because a reminder was not received. Sign up with a personal email, because the email is the user ID and the Board warns against using a work address you may lose. Payment is by Visa, Mastercard or Discover, processed within 24 to 48 hours; the application review takes up to 10 business days, during which the license shows as “Renewal in Process” and you keep your practice rights. A new pocket card follows by mail.
Your date, your hours, your fee
Four inputs give the next expiration date, the CE window, the hours the Board will expect, and the fee. It applies the rules on this page as the Board publishes them; it does not know about a prorated first renewal, a status conversion or an extension, which are covered below.
CE window February 1, 2026 to January 31, 2028
$400 fee plus 2.3% card fee; $200 more after 30 days late
Expiration: last day of the birth month in the next year that matches the birth year’s parity (16 CCR and the Board’s renewal overview). Hours: 16 CCR 87 and the Board’s CE quick reference. Fee: $400 for CPA licenses expiring after June 30, 2026, 2.3% transaction fee on CBA Connect payments from July 1, 2026, $200 delinquency fee when payment is not received within 30 days of expiration. Not a determination by the Board; confirm your date in the license lookup and your hours against your own certificates.
The 80 hours and the eight subject rules
Section 87 of Title 16 sets the base requirement: 80 hours of continuing education in the two-year period immediately before expiration, no carryover from one period to the next, and a licensee engaged in public accountancy must hold the license in active status. The Board’s renewal overview lists eight subject rules inside those 80 hours. Four apply to everyone; four depend on the work you did in the period.
| Rule | Who | Hours | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50/50 | Everyone | At least 40 technical | Technical: accounting, auditing, fraud, taxation, consulting, financial planning, business law, economics, management services, statistics, ethics, regulatory review, IT except word processing, specialized industry practice. Non-technical, capped at 40: behavioral ethics, practice management, communications and marketing, business software, personal development, HR, production. |
| 20/12 | Everyone | 20 per year, 12 technical | Each year of the two-year period on its own. A license expiring January 31, 2027 needs 20 hours between February 1, 2025 and January 31, 2026, and 20 more between February 1, 2026 and January 31, 2027. |
| Ethics | Everyone | 4 | Codes of conduct, case-based instruction, dilemmas facing the profession, or business ethics. One or more courses of at least one hour each. Sexual harassment and workplace violence courses do not count. Not interchangeable with regulatory review. |
| Regulatory review | Everyone, every six years | 2 | The only course that must come from the Board’s pre-approved list; it covers the Accountancy Act and the Board’s regulations. Taking it early resets the six-year clock. New licensees take it before their first expiration. |
| Government auditing | If you planned, directed, did substantial field work on, or reported on an audit of a governmental agency | 24 | Governmental accounting, auditing or related subjects, in the same period as the report. Meeting this rule also meets the A&A rule. |
| Accounting and auditing | If you planned, directed, performed substantial work on, or reported on an audit, review, compilation or attestation service | 24 | Financial statement preparation and reporting, auditing, reviews, compilations, industry accounting, attestation, assurance. |
| Preparation engagement | If preparation engagements were your highest level of service | 8 | Preparation-engagement or A&A subject matter. Meeting the A&A rule also meets this one. |
| Fraud | Anyone subject to the three rules above | 4 | Prevention, detection or reporting of fraud affecting financial statements. Inside the 80 hours but outside the 24 or 8. |
What qualifies is any formal program of learning that contributes directly to competence in public practice: courses from private providers and the state and national societies, university courses, a firm’s own professional development, webcasts, self-study, nano and blended learning, instructing, and technical writing, each under the measurement rules in sections 88 and 88.2. What does not qualify is listed in section 87(a)(4): personal growth, self-realization, spirituality, health and fitness, sports, foreign languages, and anything else that does not contribute directly to professional competence. A one-hour credit is at least 50 minutes of instruction.
Two things changed at the start of 2026. On the renewal application you now certify that you completed the applicable requirements; you no longer list the courses. In return the Board is expanding its License Renewal Compliance Program, which selects licensees at random and asks for documentation of all 80 hours, so the Board tells licensees to keep CE records for four years. The Board publishes an Excel tracker for this; a folder of certificates with dates, hours and subject area does the same job. If something outside your control stops you completing the hours, an extension or exemption is available for health, military service or other extenuating circumstances such as a death in the family or a natural disaster, on a paper application with supporting documents, not through CBA Connect; extensions usually run one to six months from the expiration date.
The fee, and the late fee
SB 816 (2023) restructured the Board’s fees in two steps, July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2026. The fee depends on your expiration date, not on when you pay.
| Fee | License expiring before July 1, 2026 | License expiring after June 30, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| CPA license renewal, active or inactive | $340 | $400 |
| CPA delinquency fee, payment not received within 30 days of expiration | $170 | $200 |
| Accountancy corporation or partnership renewal (COR, PAR) | $400 | $520 |
| COR or PAR delinquency fee | $200 | $260 |
| Card transaction fee in CBA Connect | None | 2.3% of the renewal fee on payments made on or after July 1, 2026 |
| Retired status application | $75, once; no renewal fee afterwards | |
| Restoration from retired to active | $50 | |
| Conversion from inactive to active | No fee | |
The Board moved the card fee to licensees in March 2026 after absorbing more than $700,000 of transaction costs over three years; exam and initial licensure fees stay without it. A $400 renewal paid by card is $409.20. The fee is the same whether you renew active or inactive, so an inactive renewal saves the CE, not the money.
Active, inactive, retired, expired
Four statuses, each with its own rule on practice, fee, CE and the letters after your name.
| Status | May practice public accountancy | Renewal fee | CE | Title | Getting back to active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active | Yes | $400 | 80 hours as above | CPA | n/a |
| Inactive | No | $400 | None | “CPA, inactive”; the word must follow the designation wherever it is used | Status conversion form, no fee; 80 hours in the 24 months before conversion with 20 in the last 12; fingerprints if none on file since 2014. Inside 90 days of expiration, convert on the renewal application instead. |
| Retired | No; may receive a share of a firm’s net profits or other compensation from it | None | None | “CPA, retired” | Restoration form and $50; same 80-hour rule as conversion. Retired status is available at most twice in a career. |
| Expired (delinquent) | No; may not use the CPA title | All accrued renewal fees plus one delinquency fee | 80 hours in the two years before the date you renew, with 20/12 measured from that date | None | Renew within five years of expiration. The Board sends one delinquency notice about 30 days after expiration and nothing after. |
The trap for a tax-only owner is inactive status. The Board’s FAQ is direct: if you use the CPA designation when soliciting or advertising for clients or when signing a tax return, you need a current, active license. The exemption from California’s tax preparer registration, bond and education rules under Business and Professions Code 22250 to 22258 applies to CPAs with active licenses. An inactive CPA who keeps preparing returns for a fee is either misusing the title or falls under the CTEC rules written for unlicensed preparers.
Retired status is the one built for the end of a practice. It needs 20 years as a licensed CPA or PA anywhere in the United States, of which at least five years in active status with the California Board, a $75 application on Form 11R-48, and no open discipline. The Board suggests applying at least 60 days before expiration; the status takes effect when granted, so an owner who wants to work to a specific date applies about 30 days before it. A retired licensee renews every two years on the same expiration date with no fee and no CE, and may receive a share of net profits or other compensation from a public accounting firm without practicing, which is what makes it usable alongside a seller note or a retention payout after a sale.
The first renewal, and renewals after a conversion
A new licensee does not owe 80 hours at the first renewal. The requirement is 20 hours for each full six-month period between the issue date and the first expiration date, half of it technical, with the regulatory review course included; if fewer than six full months separate the two dates, no CE is owed, but since July 1, 2024 the regulatory review course is required at the first renewal regardless. The Board’s example: a license issued January 24, 2026 that first expires March 31, 2027 needs 40 hours, 20 technical, two of them regulatory review. The ethics, fraud and 20/12 rules do not apply until a full two-year period has run.
The same proration applies after an inactive or retired license is converted or restored to active: 20 hours per full six-month period from the conversion date to the next expiration, with six hours of A&A or government auditing in each 20 if you are subject to those rules, and two hours of preparation-engagement CE in each 20 if you are subject to that one. The approval letter states the number. A licensee who restores to active and then lets the license expire owes a further 20 hours for each full six months of delinquency, up to the 80.
Firm licenses: corporations, partnerships and sole proprietors
An accountancy corporation or partnership renews on its own two-year cycle, set by the month and the parity of the year the Board first issued the firm license: a firm licensed March 3, 2025 expires on March 31 of every odd year. The renewal is done in CBA Connect’s firm login against the firm name, issue date and zip code exactly as the Board holds them. A corporation must have at least one shareholder with an active California CPA or PA license and reports every shareholder associated or disassociated since the last renewal on the shareholder worksheet; a partnership must have at least two partners, one with an active California license, and reports partner changes the same way. The fee is $520 for a license expiring after June 30, 2026 and the delinquency fee $260.
Peer review is reported at renewal. A firm, including a CPA practicing as a sole proprietor, that performed services requiring a peer review uploads the Peer Review Reporting Form PR-1 with the renewal; one that did not answers the peer review questions in CBA Connect and uploads nothing. Licensees employed by a firm, by a non-accounting business or by government, and retired licensees, have no reporting duty. Separately from renewal, the Board requires fingerprints on file with the Department of Justice for an active renewal under section 37.5; anyone who has renewed active since January 1, 2014 has almost certainly met it, and the Board notifies those who have not. An inactive renewal waives it until conversion.
Where the license meets a sale
Owners who are one to three years from a sale ask the same question in different words: how long do I have to stay active? The answer in the deals we see is through the transition season or two that the buyer pays for, because the client introductions, the signed returns and the 90-day client notice under 16 CCR 54.3 all run through the licensee, and a buyer discounts a practice whose owner has already stepped back. After that, retired status is the designed exit: no fee, no CE, and the right to receive a share of profits or other compensation from the firm while the retention payout or the seller note runs. Converting to inactive instead keeps the fee and gives up the title on every return you might still sign, which is why it rarely fits a selling owner. Time the application to the closing date, not to the expiration date, and keep the regulatory review current so a restoration to active is a form and $50 rather than a scramble if the transition runs longer than planned. The rest of the sale calendar is in how to sell a CPA practice in 2026, and the three-minute quiz ends with a written valuation from our team if you want the number before the date.
Sources
- California Board of Accountancy, CPA License Renewal Information: fees, delinquency fees, card fee, renewal options, retired status eligibility, peer review reporting, processing times, CE certification and audits; page updated April 14, 2026, read October 19, 2026.
- CBA, An Overview of the Renewal Process: birth-month expiration rule, the eight subject rules, qualifying programs, extensions, new licensees, conversions, firm renewals, fingerprinting; read October 19, 2026.
- CBA, Continuing Education Quick Reference Guide: the January 2026 certification change, the four-year record rule, status conversion and delinquent-renewal CE; page updated July 29, 2026.
- CBA, Fee Restructuring: SB 816 (Roth, Chapter 723, Statutes of 2023), the two-step fee table and the March 2026 transaction-fee decision; page updated May 6, 2026.
- CBA, Retired Status and Licensee FAQs: eligibility, Form 11R-48, the two-occasion limit, restoration, the tax-return and inactive-status answer, fingerprinting.
- 16 CCR 87, Basic Requirements (amended operative July 1, 2023), with 87.8 (regulatory review), 88.2 (measurement) and 89 (reporting); 16 CCR 54.3 (sale or transfer of a practice).
- Business and Professions Code 22250 to 22258: tax preparer registration and the exemption for active CPAs. CBA licensee counts: 69,929 active CPAs and 41,655 inactive, delinquent or retired, as displayed October 19, 2026.
This article is general information for California practice owners and is not legal advice or a determination by the California Board of Accountancy. Fees, hours and dates are as published by the Board on the dates shown; confirm your own expiration date in the Board’s license lookup and your CE against your certificates before renewing.
Denis is a practicing tax and accounting professional and the principal of VistaTax, a California practice serving individuals and closely held businesses: individual and business tax preparation, tax planning, bookkeeping, financial reporting and payroll. As WIN’s founding CPA he anchors the licensed side of the structure and sits at the table for every transition. More about WIN’s team.