Alaska CPA CPE Requirements

Inactive license and returning to active status

The CPE requirement does not apply while an Alaska license is inactive, and an inactive licensee may not practice or offer to practice public accounting. To resume active practice, the licensee must document at least 120 hours of approved CPE completed in the 36 months before applying. The rule still says no more than 16 of those hours may come from programs described in 12 AAC 04.360(5), but that paragraph was repealed on April 12, 2024, so the limit no longer applies to any approved course.

Those hours do not count toward a later renewal. The first renewal after reactivating requires, in place of the usual requirement, at least 10 hours for each full calendar quarter between the reactivation and the renewal date, or 80 hours between those dates.

Renewing late or reinstating a lapsed license

A license not renewed by its December 31 expiration date lapses. What renewing or reinstating it requires depends on how long it has been lapsed.

Lapsed less than one year (late renewal): a renewal application certifying that the CPE requirement for the period that ended when the license lapsed was met, with the renewal fee and, after 60 days, the delayed renewal penalty. Hours completed after the license expired count toward that requirement only with the Board’s approval.

Lapsed one year to less than three years: at least 120 hours of approved CPE in the 36 months before applying, at least 4 of them covering current ethics and Alaska’s accountancy statutes and regulations. The rule still says no more than 16 of those hours may come from programs described in 12 AAC 04.360(5), but that paragraph was repealed on April 12, 2024, so the limit no longer applies to any approved course.

Lapsed three years to less than five years: the same 120 hours, including a current AICPA ethics course and examination or an equivalent the Board accepts, and a showing that the failure to renew was excusable.

Lapsed five years or more: the license cannot be reinstated.

The next renewal: after reinstating a license lapsed one year or more, it requires at least 10 hours for each full calendar quarter between reinstatement and the renewal date, or 80 hours between those dates; after a late renewal, the usual requirement applies. Hours earned to reinstate or renew a lapsed license never count toward a later renewal or reinstatement.

The Board may reinstate a license without the CPE when the failure was due to reasonable cause or excusable neglect and the applicant agrees to a program or schedule of CPE the Board sets.

Reasonable cause or excusable neglect

A licensee who for reasonable cause or excusable neglect cannot complete the CPE requirement for a renewal may ask the Board for an exemption in a written statement explaining the cause.

An exemption is not automatic. If the Board grants one, it prescribes another way for the licensee to complete the requirement.

Active military duty in a combat zone

An Alaska licensee on active duty in the U.S. armed forces in a combat zone, danger pay post or qualified hazardous duty area, whose license was in good standing when ordered to active duty, is exempt from the fees and other requirements to maintain the license, CPE included, while there.

The exemption lasts for 180 days after the licensee returns to the permanent duty station, as long as the licensee does not engage in licensed practice for profit in the private sector. All requirements apply again for the license period that begins after the exemption ends.