North Carolina CPA License Reinstatement: What a Lapsed License Costs
If your North Carolina CPA license has already lapsed
What it actually takes to get a lapsed North Carolina 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.
Reissuance-of-forfeited-certificate application fee (21 NCAC 08J .0106(b)(1)), 'plus penalties' per the Board's own fee schedule -- no primary-law source ties a specific extra dollar figure to routine late-renewal forfeiture, so treat as a floor, not a hard ceiling.
- 40 CPE hours 40 CPE hours completed in the 12 months immediately preceding the reinstatement application (21 NCAC 08J .0106(b)(3)) -- the same total as one year's ordinary renewal, not extra hours. NC does not require make-up CPE for years spent forfeited.
- 8 NC accountancy statutes-and-rules hours (21 NCAC 08F .0504) within that 40-hour total -- and that course or exam is defined by rule to include the Rules of Professional Ethics and Conduct, so ethics is covered inside it, not as a separate requirement. Ordinary renewal's standalone 1-hour ethics course (.0401(e)) isn't cross-referenced by the reinstatement rule.
What triggers lapsed status: License is FORFEITED if not renewed by July 1, the Board mails a demand letter, and renewal (application + CPE + fee) still isn't completed within 30 days of that letter's mailing date.
See North Carolina's CPA license renewal deadline →