Inactive status was approved by the VBOA for:
- Retired career CPAs.
- CPAs who are not working for an extended period (such as stay-at-home parents).
- Or CPAs who have completely changed careers (such as to an elementary school educator, registered nurse, or veterinary technician).
The Inactive status allows people in such circumstances to keep the CPA title in name only, without being held to the VBOA’s CPE requirements.
You can find further specifications in our policy about Inactive status here.
You will not be eligible if …
As an Inactive CPA, you cannot:
- Work or volunteer in any business roles, including tax preparation or professional consulting.
- Work or volunteer in any financial roles, including sales and marketing.
- Volunteer on boards that include a financial aspect, either by the nature of the board (banking, investments, etc.) or by committee assignments.*
*Retired CPAs can provide a limited number of hours annually in these roles.
Therefore, most actively employed Virginia CPAs will not be eligible for the Inactive status.
If you are providing services to the public, or working in any business environment—including public accounting in any role, real estate, business, information security controls or project management—you will not be eligible for the Inactive status.
Additionally, if you have not held a Virginia CPA license for at least five years, you will not qualify for Inactive status.
If you no longer want to meet the requirements to hold a CPA license you may:
- Voluntarily surrender your license.
- Let your license expire.
How to apply for Inactive status
Things to know before you apply:
- Please allow up to eight weeks for inactive applications to be processed.
- You must be approved for the Inactive status before ceasing to meet the CPE requirements.
- If you are approved, you are exempt from VBOA’s CPE regulations starting with the calendar year in which you received the approval notice (NOT the year in which you applied).
- You cannot apply for this status during a CPE audit. If you are selected for an audit after applying, but before you’ve been approved for Inactive status, you are still responsible for meeting the VBOA’s CPE requirements.
- Once approved, if you plan to change your job, role, or employment status, you must notify the VBOA.
- You are still responsible for renewing your Inactive license each year by June 30.
- To return to Active, you will need to provide proof of 120 hours of CPE from the three most recent calendar years.
To apply, submit the following form to the VBOA, along with a copy of an official job description, if applicable.
Return to Active status
If an Inactive licensee plans to start providing services to the public or to or on behalf of an employer, they must request a change in status to Active and be approved for the status change by the VBOA before providing these services. In order to begin providing services, a licensee must meet the requirements of VBOA regulation 18VAC5-22-90, including 120 hours of CPE from the three most recent calendar years.
