The 2029 renewal cohort
7,699 licences — 29.6% of everyone Washington currently licenses — fall due by 30 April 2029.
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 2029, 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 2028, 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 2029 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 2029 cohort is, in Washington
| Town | CPAs in practice | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | 653 | 8.5% |
| Bellevue | 192 | 2.5% |
| Spokane | 132 | 1.7% |
| Kirkland | 117 | 1.5% |
| Bothell | 89 | 1.2% |
| Sammamish | 79 | 1.0% |
| Redmond | 77 | 1.0% |
| Tacoma | 74 | 1.0% |
| Renton | 74 | 1.0% |
| Bellingham | 66 | 0.9% |
| Vancouver | 64 | 0.8% |
| Edmonds | 62 | 0.8% |
| Lynnwood | 57 | 0.7% |
| Issaquah | 55 | 0.7% |
| Shoreline | 53 | 0.7% |
| Woodinville | 41 | 0.5% |
| Mercer Island | 38 | 0.5% |
| Everett | 38 | 0.5% |
| Olympia | 37 | 0.5% |
| Spokane Valley | 36 | 0.5% |
| Kent | 35 | 0.5% |
| Gig Harbor | 35 | 0.5% |
| Puyallup | 35 | 0.5% |
| Snoqualmie | 30 | 0.4% |
| Snohomish | 29 | 0.4% |
| Yakima | 28 | 0.4% |
| Lake Stevens | 27 | 0.4% |
| Auburn | 25 | 0.3% |
| Liberty Lake | 24 | 0.3% |
| Bonney Lake | 24 | 0.3% |
| Newcastle | 24 | 0.3% |
| Richland | 22 | 0.3% |
| Federal Way | 22 | 0.3% |
| Maple Valley | 21 | 0.3% |
| Camas | 20 | 0.3% |
| Mill Creek | 20 | 0.3% |
| Kenmore | 20 | 0.3% |
| Kennewick | 19 | 0.2% |
| Wenatchee | 19 | 0.2% |
| Lynden | 19 | 0.2% |
And outside Washington
| State on the record | CPAs in practice | Share |
|---|---|---|
| CA | 229 | 3.0% |
| TX | 115 | 1.5% |
| OR | 92 | 1.2% |
| NY | 65 | 0.8% |
| NJ | 54 | 0.7% |
| ID | 51 | 0.7% |
| FL | 47 | 0.6% |
| AZ | 40 | 0.5% |
| GA | 40 | 0.5% |
| CO | 31 | 0.4% |
| IL | 29 | 0.4% |
| NV | 25 | 0.3% |
| UT | 24 | 0.3% |
| PA | 24 | 0.3% |
| VA | 22 | 0.3% |
| MD | 20 | 0.3% |
5 of the 7,699 licences in the 2029 cohort has a Board order published against it — 0.1%.
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
7,699 licences fall due by 30 April 2029. 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 2028 9,520