Nevada CPA Renewal: Annual, December 31 — Why Some CPE Trackers Get the Hours Wrong

Nevada CPA licenses renew every year, not every two, an annual cycle that makes Nevada an outlier next to most of its neighbors. The permit expires December 31, but renewal fees can be paid without penalty through January 31 of the following year. CPE follows the same annual rhythm: 40 hours a year, not the 80-hours-over-two-years figure a few third-party CPE trackers have published for Nevada. Here's what's actually codified, what the Board confirmed directly, and what it costs if you miss the window.

The pattern: individual permits expire annually, firm registration never does

An individual CPA permit to practice expires December 31 of each year (NRS 628.380(2)), but the statute also gives a one-month grace window: renewal fees may be paid without a late penalty through January 31 of the following year, even though the permit itself expired a month earlier. Firms work differently. NRS 628.335 establishes continuous registration for a CPA firm office, with no provision anywhere in NRS 628.335/340/343/345 or NAC 628.180/190/210/250 stating a firm-registration expiration date. The annual report-filing and fee requirement under NAC 628.180/628.190, due January 31 each year, is the entire renewal mechanism for firms, not a true expiring-and-renewing permit the way the individual license works.

Confirm your own next Nevada renewal deadline here.

CPE: 40 hours every year, not 80 over two, and that's not a typo

Nevada requires 40 hours of CPE every calendar year, codified at NAC 628.210(1): an applicant for renewal of a permit "must complete at least 40 hours of continuing education each calendar year, of which: (a) Two hours must be in professional ethics." Worth stating plainly because it's a real, documented point of confusion: some third-party CPE-vendor summaries describe Nevada as an "80 hours per 2 years / 4 hours ethics" state. That doesn't match the Board's own education page or the codified NAC text, both of which confirm the 40-hour annual cycle. If a licensee performed audit, review, full disclosure compilation, or attestation services in a given calendar year, an additional 8 hours in accounting and auditing are required for that same year on top of the 40 (NAC 628.210(1)(b)); the requirement is keyed to the calendar year the work was performed in, not a rolling 12-month lookback. The rule grants no carryover of excess hours into the next year, though it doesn't expressly prohibit it either. A licensee's first annual renewal after initial licensure is exempt from the CPE requirement.

See the full Nevada CPE breakdown here.

The fee: $175 individual, and two firm figures the Board had to confirm directly

The individual annual renewal fee is $175, payable online or by mail, set by the Board under NRS 628.380 within a $200 statutory cap (NAC 628.016(3)(g)). A $150 late fee applies after the January 31 grace deadline passes. Firm fees aren't published on any Board page. We asked the Nevada State Board of Accountancy directly, and the Board confirmed by email (2026-09-29): the firm registration fee is $250 and the firm annual-report fee is $200. Both sit at their own codified caps, not just the Board's say-so: $250 at NAC 628.016(2)(b) (firm registration) and $200 at NAC 628.016(3)(a): a dedicated firm cap, separate from the individual $200 cap above.

Firm registration and renewal details here.

If it lapses: a late fee first, then a separate reinstatement fee if you let your status drop

Miss the January 31 grace deadline and the math is additive, not a single flat number: a $150 late fee (itself capped at $200 by NAC 628.016(3)(d)) on top of the $175 standard annual fee covers a simple late renewal. That's a different scenario from reinstatement from retired or inactive status, which carries its own separate $250 fee under NAC 628.016(3)(c), not something you owe for an ordinary late renewal, only if your license status actually lapsed to retired or inactive first.

Full Nevada reinstatement math here.

Bottom line: Nevada CPAs renew every year, not every two, always December 31 with a January 31 grace window, for $175, and the CPE requirement follows the same annual rhythm at 40 hours a year (2 of them ethics), not the 80-hours-over-two-years figure a few CPE trackers have gotten wrong. Firms work on a genuinely different mechanism: continuous registration with an annual report, not an expiring permit, and their fees ($250 registration, $200 renewal) weren't published anywhere until the Board confirmed them directly. Miss the window and it's a $150 late fee on top of the standard $175, a different and separate $250 if your status actually lapsed to retired or inactive. Set a reminder for your own Nevada deadline here so an annual cycle in a mostly-biennial region doesn't catch you off guard.

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