District of Columbia CPA CPE Requirements: How Many Hours, By When
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- 4 ethics hours, within that same total.
Initial renewals of licenses issued for under 2 years are exempt. Confirm with the Board which applies to you.
Sourcing note: You can rely on DC's 80-hour biennial requirement (with a 4-hour ethics minimum) -- it's confirmed in two independent places that agree: 17 DCMR §§2530.1 and 2530.8, and the Board's own CPE Reporting Form, which quotes both sections verbatim. DC's online regulations portal doesn't offer a stable link to individual sections -- its section-list page resolves to a search screen, not the rule text -- so the citation above points you directly to the Board's reporting form PDF, the official document that reproduces the rule's language. (Last checked 2026-11-07.)
DC CPAs must complete 80 hours of acceptable CPE during the two-year period preceding license renewal (biennial cycle, renewal due Dec 31 of even-numbered years), including no fewer than 4 hours of Professional Ethics instruction (effective since Jan 1, 2005). Both 17 DCMR 2530 and DC's own official CPE Reporting Form (dlcp.dc.gov) state the same 80-hour / 4-hour-ethics requirement; the form cites §§2530.1 and 2530.8 directly. No annual minimum (e.g., 20 hrs/year) is stated in the actual regulation text, despite some CE-vendor sites implying one -- only the 80-hour biennial total and the 4-hour ethics carve-out are codified. Initial renewals of licenses issued for under 2 years are exempt; reinstatement after lapse requires 40 hrs/year of non-renewal up to a 120-hour max (a different, non-recurring figure -- do not confuse with the standard renewal requirement).
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