The 2028 renewal cohort
9,520 licences — 36.6% of everyone Washington currently licenses — fall due by 30 April 2028.
Two dates, and the earlier one is the one that bites
Washington renews CPA licences on a three-year cycle. For this cohort the filing window is 1 January to 30 April 2028, after which a late fee applies.
But the requirement behind the filing has its own date, four months earlier: 120 hours of continuing education complete by 31 December 2027, at least 20 of them in each calendar year of the cycle, including a Board-approved ethics course. The rule is at WAC 4-30-134. Someone who reaches February 2028 still short of hours is filing an extension request, not a renewal.
The three cohorts are close in size — that is what a three-year cycle looks like once it has settled. It also means roughly a third of the profession is in this position every single year.
Where the 2028 cohort is, in Washington
| Town | CPAs in practice | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | 868 | 9.1% |
| Bellevue | 290 | 3.0% |
| Spokane | 223 | 2.3% |
| Kirkland | 151 | 1.6% |
| Bothell | 126 | 1.3% |
| Vancouver | 120 | 1.3% |
| Renton | 112 | 1.2% |
| Sammamish | 96 | 1.0% |
| Bellingham | 96 | 1.0% |
| Redmond | 95 | 1.0% |
| Tacoma | 90 | 0.9% |
| Edmonds | 88 | 0.9% |
| Lynnwood | 83 | 0.9% |
| Issaquah | 81 | 0.9% |
| Everett | 81 | 0.9% |
| Spokane Valley | 72 | 0.8% |
| Snohomish | 68 | 0.7% |
| Kent | 67 | 0.7% |
| Shoreline | 65 | 0.7% |
| Olympia | 64 | 0.7% |
| Woodinville | 57 | 0.6% |
| Yakima | 54 | 0.6% |
| Mercer Island | 52 | 0.5% |
| Puyallup | 48 | 0.5% |
| Auburn | 47 | 0.5% |
| Federal Way | 46 | 0.5% |
| Kenmore | 45 | 0.5% |
| Gig Harbor | 43 | 0.5% |
| Wenatchee | 42 | 0.4% |
| Kennewick | 39 | 0.4% |
| Liberty Lake | 31 | 0.3% |
| Richland | 29 | 0.3% |
| Mill Creek | 28 | 0.3% |
| Maple Valley | 28 | 0.3% |
| Newcastle | 25 | 0.3% |
| Mountlake Terrace | 25 | 0.3% |
| Lake Stevens | 24 | 0.3% |
| Bainbridge Island | 24 | 0.3% |
| Snoqualmie | 24 | 0.3% |
| Walla Walla | 23 | 0.2% |
And outside Washington
| State on the record | CPAs in practice | Share |
|---|---|---|
| CA | 253 | 2.7% |
| OR | 149 | 1.6% |
| TX | 144 | 1.5% |
| NY | 77 | 0.8% |
| ID | 73 | 0.8% |
| NJ | 66 | 0.7% |
| FL | 48 | 0.5% |
| AZ | 44 | 0.5% |
| CO | 41 | 0.4% |
| IL | 38 | 0.4% |
| UT | 35 | 0.4% |
| NC | 34 | 0.4% |
| NV | 33 | 0.3% |
| VA | 29 | 0.3% |
| GA | 26 | 0.3% |
| MA | 21 | 0.2% |
18 of the 9,520 licences in the 2028 cohort has a Board order published against it — 0.2%.
This site publishes that count and no more: never who. The Board publishes each order as a signed document, and the document is the only thing that can say what happened — so we link to it from the individual record and nowhere else. Orders have been published as documents only since 1 January 2020; for anything earlier the Board asks that you call its enforcement line on (360) 664-9266.
The date that catches people out
9,520 licences fall due by 30 April 2028. Tell us your cohort and we will warn you before the December that counts — not just before the April everyone remembers — and pass your request for hours to providers who teach for Washington.
We take no commission and we recommend no course provider. We have no arrangement with any provider today — we are collecting these requests in order to go and find them. What we do with this.
The other cohorts
- Renewing in 2027 8,765
- Renewing in 2029 7,699