# What each Washington CPA status means

> Licensed, lapsed, retired, inactive, suspended, revoked: the 12 statuses the Washington State Board of Accountancy uses, and what each one does and does not tell you.

## What each status means

Of 51,317 records, **25,984** are licensed to practise public accounting. The other 25,333 are in the register for a reason, and the reasons are not interchangeable.

| 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% |
| Converted to a CPA licence | 107 | 0.2% |
| Non-CPA owner of a Washington CPA firm | 92 | 0.2% |
| Deceased | 86 | 0.2% |
| Licence revoked by Board order | 30 | 0.1% |

### The distinctions that matter

**Lapsed is not revoked.** A lapsed licence is one that was
not renewed — most often because the holder retired, moved, changed
career or simply let it go. It says nothing about conduct. Revocation is a
Board decision, and there are 30
of those in the whole register.

**Inactive is not lapsed either.**
914 people hold a licence
in an inactive status: the credential exists, and the holder is not licensed
to practise public accounting while it stands that way.

**A certificate is not a licence.** Washington issued
certificates historically, and the register still carries lapsed and retired
certificate holders. Someone who holds a certificate is not thereby licensed
to practise.

**Retired is a status the Board grants**, not simply a
description of someone who stopped working. It has its own entry on the
record.

### Why we show all of them

Because the useful answer to
« is this person a CPA? » is often *no, not any
more* — and a lookup that only loads current licences answers that
question with silence. Silence reads like reassurance. It should not.

The wording in the table is the Board’s own, shortened
for reading; the full phrase appears on each record. Although this information is updated nightly, the information found through this service is not guaranteed to be accurate or timely. The Board does not guarantee the use of this information for any purpose and as such, the information obtained from this database should not be considered an official endorsement of any individual or firm.

**Not a consumer reporting agency.** This site
and the datasets sold from it are **not** consumer reports under
the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and must not be used to decide anyone's
eligibility for employment, credit, insurance, housing, or any other purpose
covered by the FCRA. If you need a background check, use a screening company
that operates as a consumer reporting agency.

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