If your Illinois CPA license has already lapsed
What it actually takes to get a lapsed Illinois 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, never a guess.
Statutory cap, not a flat fee: $50 restoration fee plus all lapsed annual renewal fees ($40/yr Licensed CPA, $30/yr Registered CPA), capped so the total 'shall not exceed $260' (68 Ill. Admin. Code 1420.40). Restoring from voluntary inactive status costs only the current renewal fee instead.
Sourcing note: penalty_cpe_hours/penalty_ethics_hours are null because the rule imposes the same standard 120-hr/4-ethics-hr load already required at ordinary renewal, just with a tighter lookback window -- not an additional number. IDFPR's own site does not publish CPA-specific restoration dollar figures on a single page (its general reactivation-fee table explicitly excludes CPAs); the board-page leg of the 2-source rule is satisfied by the Public Accounting landing page instead, with the exact fee formula confirmed only in the codified rule text.
What triggers lapsed status: Individual license expires September 30 every 3 years (firm license: November 30) if not renewed in the 2-month pre-expiration window. No grace period -- practicing on an expired license is unlicensed activity from the day after expiration (68 Ill. Admin. Code 1420.80).
See Illinois's CPA license renewal deadline →