# cpa-wa — check a Washington CPA licence

> Look up any of the 51,317 people who hold or have held a Washington State CPA credential: status, licence number, renewal year. Board of Accountancy data, updated nightly.

## Check a Washington CPA licence

Type the licence number or the surname. All **51,317** records are searchable — lapsed and retired included, not just the **25,984** currently licensed to practise.

Checking a roster rather than one name? [Pro
access](/pro.md) resolves a whole list, and the [datasets](/data.md) are
published with their prices — from USD 300 a month for
the stream of changes.

### Why this answers « lapsed » and not
« not found »

Most licence lookups load only the people who are currently licensed. Ask
them about someone whose licence ran out in 2019 and they say
*nothing found* — which reads like an absence of a problem, and
is the opposite of the truth.

This site loads all **51,317** records the Board publishes.
Search someone whose licence lapsed and it says
**licence lapsed**, with the date it ran out. That is the answer
someone actually needs before handing over their books.

| Status, as the Board words it | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed to practise public accounting | 25,984 | 50.6% |
| Licence lapsed | 12,278 | 23.9% |
| Retired | 5,074 | 9.9% |
| Certificate lapsed | 4,564 | 8.9% |
| Certificate retired | 1,926 | 3.8% |
| Licence held, but inactive | 914 | 1.8% |
| Suspended by Board order | 154 | 0.3% |
| Registration lapsed | 108 | 0.2% |

The Board states plainly what this file is for: it is provided
« to aid in verifying credentials and disciplinary
history ». [What each status means](/status.md).

### Two dates, and everyone remembers the wrong one

Washington renews CPA licences **every three years**, filed
between 1 January and 30 April. But the 120 hours of continuing education must
be finished by **31 December of the year before** — four
months earlier. The profession splits into three cohorts of almost equal
size:

| Renews by 30 April | CPAs in practice | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [2027](/renewal/2027.md) | 8,765 | 33.7% |
| [2028](/renewal/2028.md) | 9,520 | 36.6% |
| [2029](/renewal/2029.md) | 7,699 | 29.6% |

### Where Washington’s CPAs are

12,532 of the 25,984 in practice have a Washington address on the
record, 3,874 an address in another state, and
**9,578** have no state recorded at all —
36.9% of the profession, neither here nor elsewhere as far as
this file is concerned. We count them nowhere rather than guess.

| Town in Washington | CPAs in practice | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Seattle](/city/seattle.md) | 2,364 | 9.1% |
| [Bellevue](/city/bellevue.md) | 765 | 2.9% |
| [Spokane](/city/spokane.md) | 586 | 2.3% |
| [Kirkland](/city/kirkland.md) | 405 | 1.6% |
| [Bothell](/city/bothell.md) | 332 | 1.3% |
| [Renton](/city/renton.md) | 302 | 1.2% |
| [Vancouver](/city/vancouver.md) | 290 | 1.1% |
| [Tacoma](/city/tacoma.md) | 273 | 1.1% |
| [Sammamish](/city/sammamish.md) | 269 | 1.0% |
| [Redmond](/city/redmond.md) | 264 | 1.0% |
| [Bellingham](/city/bellingham.md) | 242 | 0.9% |
| [Edmonds](/city/edmonds.md) | 231 | 0.9% |
| [Issaquah](/city/issaquah.md) | 213 | 0.8% |
| [Lynnwood](/city/lynnwood.md) | 208 | 0.8% |
| [Olympia](/city/olympia.md) | 175 | 0.7% |
| [Everett](/city/everett.md) | 171 | 0.7% |

### Firms are a separate register, and it is here too

The Board keeps a second list: **1,430** CPA
*firms* currently registered to do business, out of 2,356 on
file. Neither register says who works where, so checking a firm tells you
nothing about the licence of the person doing your return — and the
numbers run in separate sequences, so one number can belong to a firm and to a
person at once.

Both are searchable from the same box above.
**306** of the
registered firms are sole proprietorships: one person under a trading name.
[What each legal form means](/firm.md).

[All 91 towns with a page](/city.md) · [Washington CPAs in other states](/state.md) · [Registered firms](/firm.md) · [The three-year cycle](/renewal.md) · [How this site is built](/about.md)

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Página: https://cpa-wa.pages.dev/
Fonte: Washington State Certified Public Accountants — Washington State Board of Accountancy
Recolha: 2026-08-21