What Your State Board Actually Promises About Renewal Reminders
Most CPAs assume their board will remind them before a license lapses. We checked what ten state boards actually commit to, in their own rules and their own words — and one state promises the opposite of what you'd expect.
Six states say it in codified rule: if their notice doesn't reach you, that's still on you
Texas has two separate provisions, one for individual licenses and one for firm permits, both saying notice going astray doesn't move your deadline (22 TAC § 515.3; 22 TAC § 159.108).
Missouri is the cleanest example on record. One rule section requires the board to mail notice at least sixty days out to your last known address, then in the same breath: "Failure to receive this notice does not relieve the licensee of the obligation biennially to renew the license to practice." Missouri states the identical principle for firm permits, in a separate section (20 CSR 2010-2.070; 2010-2.072).
- Minnesota: "Failure to receive the notice by either means does not relieve a license holder of the obligation to renew a license or to pay the renewal fee" (Minn. R. 2150.0060).
- Kentucky puts the same principle directly in the statute, not just a board rule (KRS 325.330(6)(c)).
- Iowa's rule is worth reading closely: notice "may" be sent — not "will" (IAC 193A ch. 5).
- Indiana states the same principle, worded to cover renewal fees specifically (872 IAC 1-1-11).
Three more states say the same thing, just not in the code — Virginia, Alaska, and South Dakota all publish it on the board's own site or newsletter rather than in a rule.
One state does the opposite
New Jersey's rule requires the Board to send a renewal notice at least 60 days before expiration — and if it doesn't, no monetary penalty applies to the licensee, as long as the license is renewed within 60 days of the date the notice was actually sent, or 30 days after the license's expiration date, whichever is later. New Jersey put the cost of a missed notice on the board, not on the licensee (N.J.A.C. 13:29-1.7).
Two states only contact you after you've already missed
North Carolina sends a demand letter once you've already blown the July 1 deadline. Louisiana sends a notice of default once you're already delinquent. Neither is a reminder — both are what happens next.
A few boards tell you, plainly, to go check yourself
Kansas says contact the office if your renewal form hasn't shown up by the first week of June. Washington's renewal page doesn't describe a notice process at all — it points you to CPAverify or its own licensee lookup. Hawaii says flatly: "No other notice will be provided."
Lead time varies enormously
New York mails roughly four months out. Texas gives 30 days for an individual license, 90 for a firm permit. Several states we checked — Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, D.C. — don't document a notice practice on their renewal pages at all.
A scope note, because it matters: this covers exactly the ten jurisdictions named above, checked individually against each one's own codified rule or official published notice. It isn't a claim about most states, or a typical state — only about these ten, specifically.
Three ways to keep track, and where each one can break
Whatever you rely on, the rules above leave the deadline with you. So the real question isn't whether to track it, but what you're trusting to do the tracking.
Your board's own notice. It covers the one license that board issued, on that board's timeline, sent to whatever address you last gave it. Six of the ten boards above say in their own rules that a notice going astray doesn't move your deadline. Two only write once you've already missed, and lead time runs from roughly four months in New York to 30 days for an individual Texas license. Useful when it arrives. Not something to plan around.
A spreadsheet or calendar you keep yourself. It reminds you of exactly the date you typed in. If that date was wrong, if a board changes its rule, or if you pick up a license in another state, nothing tells you; it's only as current as your last edit.
A reminder service like ours. Deadline-Radar computes each date from the board's own verified rule and emails you at 60, 30, 14, 7, 3 and 1 day before it. In the 6 jurisdictions where the rule doesn't let us compute a date, you enter the date from your license and we track that. It has limits too. It's email, so it goes to the address you give us, and that's worth keeping current for the same reason your board's is. And we're independent of every board, so your board's rule, not our reminder, is what actually counts. If you're ever unsure of a date, confirm it with the board.
None of these fully replaces the others. A board notice that does arrive is good confirmation. The point of a reminder that doesn't depend on any single board is that it keeps working when one board's notice doesn't. If you're the one tracking licenses for a whole firm, the spreadsheet problem looks different. We've written that up on the firm overview.
What this means if you're licensed in more than one state
Each board is only ever watching its own deadline, on its own timeline, sent to whatever address you gave it last. Nobody is watching the whole picture across states. That's the actual gap — not that boards don't try, but that no single board can, or is supposed to, aggregate across every state you're actually licensed in. See how multi-state tracking works for firms here, or set a free reminder for your own state so you're not relying on any one board's notice arriving on time.
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 17, 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.