What do you mean I'm not a CPA?

By Jill Edmonds

It sounds like your worst nightmare. There you are, going about your business, networking and introducing yourself as a CPA, passing out business cards with CPA behind your name. And then one day it hits you — you aren’t really a CPA at all!

Sound crazy? Think again. Many accountants in Virginia are discovering they aren’t really CPAs. Sure, they were — once. But they didn’t renew their licenses each year and are therefore no longer CPAs. And now the Virginia Board of Accountancy (VBOA) is cracking down — if you practice as a CPA without a valid license, you could be in trouble.

“The VBOA's mission is to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth through a regulatory program of licensure and compliance of CPAs and CPA firms,” said Mary T. Charity, the VBOA’s deputy director for operations. “The Board is granted this responsibility per the Code of Virginia and regulations.”

License renewal

“Once licensed, CPAs must renew their license annually — a responsibility taken seriously by the Board,” Charity said.

There are no longer license cards, so don’t expect one. The VBOA will contact you via email to let you know your license expires in 30–60 days prior to renewal, 15 days prior to renewal via email and regular mail and again by phone within the week of expiration — but if you don’t get the email, or your address isn’t correct with the VBOA, that’s not the VBOA’s fault. Regulations state that a CPA’s failure to receive a reminder notice does not relieve the regulant of the requirement to renew and pay the required fee in a timely manner. That means it’s up to each individual CPA to renew on time.

The VBOA eliminated the policy of an additional 12 months to renew your license as a late renewal back in July 2017. If you fail to timely renew, your license is expired and will need to be reinstated in order to continue practicing as a CPA. The same is true of firm licenses. Beginning in 2018, the VBOA began the process of transitioning all licenses to a June 30 renewal date, which remains today.

VSCPA member John Thisdell didn’t think about his license status until reading about renewal in Disclosures magazine. He noticed he wasn’t listed on the VBOA website, so he gave them a call and got the news — his license had been expired since 1993.

“It was probably in the back of my mind,” Thisdell said. “But I didn’t realize I had to renew. It didn’t occur to me until I read the article. Somewhere along the line I must have gotten a notice and set it aside.”

Lucky for him, Thisdell was all caught up on his CPE, so he paid the reinstatement fees and got his license back.

Reinstatement requirements

So if you let your license lapse, what will you pay to get reinstated?

If you failed to timely renew, individuals will have to pay $350 to use your CPA designation again and firms will pay $500 to reinstate their license in order to provide attest, compilations, or financial statement preparation services.

And that’s not counting the CPE requirements for individuals.

If you wish to reinstate, you must have 120 hours over the three-prior-year period, including the current year’s Ethics course.

As a reminder, reinstatement does not guarantee that you won’t be subject to disciplinary actions for the period you were lapsed.

“Many of the Board’s enforcement cases are the result of a CPA who has not properly maintained and renewed their annual license, resulting in significant penalties and other sanctions,” Charity said.

How do I check?

To quickly and easily find out if your license is current, visit the VBOA website at boa.virginia.gov. Under "For the Public, click "Find an individual CPA." Then, enter your last name to run an individual search. You’ll see if your license is in active or expired status.

If you have questions about your status, contact the VBOA at (804) 367-8505 or [email protected]. Thisdell said the VBOA responded quickly to his license query, and in a final note, Thisdell recommends all CPAs should check their statuses, “and read the material you get from the Society closely.”

Jill Edmonds is the managing editor of Disclosures. Contact her at [email protected] or connect with her at linkedin.com/in/jilledmonds.

Editor's note: This is an updated version of a 2004 Disclosures article.

VBOA Rules for Renewal

• CPA licenses are renewable for one year.
• Failure to receive written notice of renewal does not relieve the CPA of the requirement to renew and pay the required fee.
• A CPA’s email address is the address of record if it is provided to the VBOA.
• A renewal application for a CPA certificate must contain a statement that the applicant has:
  • Complied with the VBOA standards of conduct and applicable standards of practice.
  • Complied with the applicable CPE requirements for CPAs for the three calendar years prior to the year the renewal application is submitted.