Colorado CPA License Reinstatement: What a Lapsed License Costs
If your Colorado CPA license has already lapsed
What it actually takes to get a lapsed Colorado CPA license back — the fee, the catch-up CPE, and exactly what triggers "lapsed" in the first place. Sourced the same way every fact on this site is: a board page, plus the codified rule itself where we could confirm it against primary law, clearly labelled where we could only confirm it against the board's own page, never a guess.
No dollar figure is codified anywhere -- C.R.S. 12-20-202 delegates fee-setting to the DORA Director, published only on the online licensing portal, not in statute or rule. There is simply no primary-law dollar figure to cite for this one.
- 80 CPE hours 3 CCR 705-1 Rule 1.9(K)(1): the applicant must complete BOTH the full 80-hour requirement for the CPE period immediately preceding reinstatement, AND 10 hours for each full quarter the certificate was expired in the current period (up to 80 more) -- up to 160 hours total catch-up. These hours can't also count toward CPE owed for the remainder of the period after reinstatement.
What triggers lapsed status: A certificate not renewed by its expiration date enters 'Expired' status (Rule 1.9(J)(1)). A 60-day grace period allows renewal by paying the renewal fee plus a late fee with no penalty; after that, the certificate is fully Expired and the holder cannot hold out as a CPA.
See Colorado's CPA license renewal deadline →