Minnesota keeps every CPA license and firm permit on the same calendar-year clock — December 31, no exceptions, no grace period. What isn't obvious from that simple headline is that three genuinely different fees can apply depending on exactly how and when you miss it, and that a firm's own renewal can be blocked by something entirely outside the firm's control. Here's exactly how each piece works, sourced to Minnesota's own statutes and administrative rules.
Every Minnesota CPA certificate (Minn. Stat. § 326A.04, subd. 2(a)) and every firm permit (§ 326A.05, subd. 2(a)) expires December 31 every year. The Board of Accountancy states this in plain language on its own site: "All CPAs with a status of Active or Inactive, as well as all firms, must renew by December 31 every year," and adds explicitly: "There is no grace period for unlicensed practice or holding out. All licenses and permits expire on December 31 each year." Confirm your own next Minnesota CPA renewal deadline here.
Minnesota requires 120 CPE hours in a rolling 3-year period, with a 20-hour minimum every single year (Minn. R. 1105.3000). At least 8 of those 120 hours must be in regulatory or behavioral ethics (Minn. R. 1105.3100, subpart 4, item F). The "rolling" part is the detail worth sitting with: this isn't a fixed 3-year block that resets on a set date the way some states run it — it's checked against a continuously moving 3-year window, so the annual 20-hour floor exists specifically to keep you from back-loading all 120 hours into the final year and coming up short if your plans change. CPE for the year ending June 30 must be reported to the Board by December 31 of that same year — ahead of, but on the same December 31 deadline as, your license renewal itself.
Active-status renewal itself costs $100 per year (Minn. Stat. § 326A.04, subd. 5(b)(2)). The same fee schedule also lists a $50 "annual late processing delinquency fee for permit, certificate, or registration renewal applications not received prior to expiration date" (subd. 5(b)(6)) and a $20 fee for "applications for reinstatement" (subd. 5(b)(9)). Both exist in the statute; what the statute text does not spell out is the line between them — subd. 2(a) states certificates expire December 31 with no grace period at all, which reads as though a late-filed renewal is already, by definition, a renewal of an expired certificate. Minn. Stat. § 326A.09 separately allows the board discretion to require CPE makeup hours (up to a full 120-hour/3-year-cycle equivalent) as a condition of reinstating an expired certificate, on top of whichever fee applies. If you're filing after December 31, the honest answer is to confirm directly with the Board of Accountancy which fee and process apply to your specific situation rather than assume the cheaper of the two.
Firm permits share the same December 31 date and the same board — but the board's own site adds a condition that has nothing to do with the firm's own renewal filing: 100% of the firm's Minnesota-licensed owners must themselves be individually renewed by March 1 of the following year for the firm permit renewal to be valid. In other words, a firm can file its own renewal correctly and on time and still end up with an invalid permit if even one licensed owner lets their own individual license lapse. If you're a firm's compliance contact, that makes every owner's individual renewal status part of the firm's own deadline — not a separate, lower-priority item.
Bottom line: track four things, not one — the shared December 31 deadline for every license and firm permit, your rolling 3-year/120-hour CPE count with its 20-hour annual floor, which of the three fees (renewal, late, or reinstatement) actually applies to your situation, and — if you're on a firm's compliance side — every individually-licensed owner's own renewal status ahead of the March 1 firm-permit deadline. Set a reminder for your Minnesota deadline here so none of these get missed.
General orientation, not a citation. This guide draws on board rules and, where available, this site's own verified dataset — it isn't a primary source in itself. Last checked against those sources: August 22, 2026.
For the current renewal date or CPE figures your state actually enforces, use the state page linked above — it carries a direct link to the board page and codified rule, per our verification standard.