Georgia Board of Accountancy License Renewal Requirements

Your Georgia CPA license renewal is due December 31 of each odd-numbered year, costs $100, and requires 80 hours of continuing professional education completed during the two-year cycle. You submit it through the Board’s online portal. Miss the deadline and a $100 late fee applies; let the late window close and your license lapses, with reinstatement running $300 plus a fresh CPE showing.

When Your License Expires

Individual CPA licenses in Georgia expire on December 31 of each odd-numbered year.¹ The most recent deadline was December 31, 2025. The next is December 31, 2027. The Board typically opens the online renewal portal at least 60 days before expiration, so you can start in the fall rather than waiting for the year-end crunch.

Georgia does not offer an inactive status. The Board recognizes only Active and Lapsed.² If you are not currently practicing, there is no middle option: you either renew and stay active or let the license lapse and reinstate later.

CPE You Need Before You Renew

You must complete 80 hours of CPE during the two-year period leading up to your renewal date, with at least 20 hours in each calendar year of the cycle.³ Stacking all 80 hours into one year does not work.

Inside that 80-hour total, at least 16 hours must cover accounting and auditing, and carryover credits from a prior cycle cannot satisfy that piece.³ You also need four hours of ethics CPE, and at least one of those four must focus specifically on the laws, rules, and policies of the Georgia Board of Accountancy.⁴ Generic national ethics courses cover the other three ethics hours, but the Georgia-specific credit is the one that catches procrastinators.

Live seminars, webinars, and self-study programs all qualify as long as the sponsor meets the standards jointly published by the AICPA and NASBA. For self-study, confirm the course awards measurable CPE credit rather than a plain certificate of completion.

Keep your completion certificates for at least five years after finishing each program.³ The Board runs random audits and will ask for the course title, completion date, sponsoring organization, and credit hours for anything you reported. Electronic or paper is fine, as long as you can produce it.

How to Renew Online

Renewals go through the Georgia Online Licensing portal at gaboa.mylicense.com.⁵ First-time users create an account; returning users log in with existing credentials.

The application itself is short:

Confirm or correct your mailing address, phone, and email.
Answer the attestation questions covering CPE compliance and any disciplinary history.
Pay the $100 renewal fee with Visa or Mastercard.¹
Print the receipt. The portal sometimes displays a red “Error processing payment” message even when the charge went through, so save the confirmation and check back before resubmitting.

Your updated status appears on CPAverify.org the next business day. If you finish after 3 PM, give it an extra day. NASBA mails a plastic wallet card roughly six weeks after processing.⁵

If You Miss the December 31 Deadline

A late renewal window opens January 1. You can still renew during this window by paying the standard $100 fee plus a $100 late fee.⁵ The process is otherwise identical: same portal, same CPE attestation, same payment options.

The late window runs several months into the following year. Once it closes without a submission, your license moves from Active to Lapsed and ordinary late renewal is no longer available.² From that point on, you are in reinstatement territory.

Reinstating a Lapsed License

Reinstatement takes a separate application and a $300 fee.⁶ You also must show at least 80 hours of CPE completed in the 24 months immediately before the reinstatement application date. That clock runs backward from your application, not from the last renewal cycle, so hours you earned years ago will not carry the request.

The Board reviews each reinstatement individually to confirm you have maintained professional competency during the gap.² If approved, your license returns to Active and you can practice again. Between the higher fee, the fresh CPE burden, and the time without a license, renewing late is almost always the cheaper path.

Waivers and the Age 70 Exemption

Georgia law lets the Board waive or reduce CPE requirements for health problems or individual hardship.⁷ The statute does not list qualifying circumstances, so requests are handled at the Board’s discretion. If serious illness, disability, or a comparable hardship kept you from earning credits, contact the Board and be ready to document what happened.

Licensees age 70 or older are fully exempt from CPE.⁷ You still file the renewal and pay the $100 fee to keep the license active, but you do not need to complete or report any hours.

Firm Licenses Follow a Different Schedule

If you also hold a Georgia CPA firm license, it does not renew alongside your individual license. Firm licenses expire June 30 of each even-numbered year at a $150 fee, with the next deadline on June 30, 2026.⁸ Firms that issued attest or compilation reports in the preceding 24 months must submit proof of a Board-approved peer review completed within the preceding 36 months; firms that did not must submit written confirmation of that fact.⁹ Firms licensed for two years or less are exempt from the peer review submission.

Late firm renewal runs July 1 through September 30 with a $250 late fee on top of the $150 renewal fee. After September 30, reinstatement costs $1,150, and the firm cannot legally practice public accountancy in Georgia in the meantime.⁸

Federal Requirements Renewing Georgia Doesn’t Cover

A current Georgia license does not satisfy your federal obligations. If you prepare federal tax returns for compensation, the IRS requires a Preparer Tax Identification Number that must be renewed annually, and renewal is contingent on your personal and business tax returns being filed and any taxes due paid or under an approved payment arrangement.¹⁰

CPAs who represent taxpayers before the IRS are also governed by Treasury Department Circular 230. Violations can result in censure, suspension, disbarment from IRS practice, or monetary penalties imposed by the Office of Professional Responsibility.¹¹ The state license and the federal credentials run in parallel. Losing one does not automatically affect the other, but falling behind on either creates compounding problems.

1
Georgia Secretary of State. Georgia Board of Accountancy Chapter 20-10 – Permits to Practice Issued to Individuals
2
Georgia State Board of Accountancy. Georgia State Board of Accountancy – Licensure
3
Georgia Secretary of State. Georgia Board of Accountancy Chapter 20-11 – Continuing Professional Education
4
Georgia State Board of Accountancy. CPE Requirements
5
Georgia State Board of Accountancy. CPA Individual License Late Renewal
6
Fastcase. GA Reg. 20-10-.04 – Reinstatement
7
Justia Law. Georgia Code 43-3-19 – Continuing Professional Education
8
Georgia Secretary of State. Georgia Board of Accountancy Chapter 20-8 – Registration Requirements for Firms
9
Georgia Secretary of State. Georgia Board of Accountancy Chapter 20-13 – Peer Review Requirements
10
Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions: PTIN Application/Renewal Assistance
11
Internal Revenue Service. Office of Professional Responsibility and Circular 230