How Much Does a CPA Charge to Do Taxes? Fees by Form
The last National Society of Accountants fee survey, covering 2019 and 2020, averaged $323 for a Form 1040 with Schedule A plus a state return.
How much a CPA charges to do taxes depends on the forms your return carries, and the only survey that prices US tax work form by form is six years old. The National Society of Accountants’ 20th Income and Fees survey, conducted during 2020 and covering actual data for 2019 and 2020, put the average fee at $323 for a Form 1040 with Schedule A plus a state return, $903 for a Form 1120-S and $733 for a Form 1065. Those are national means from small accounting and tax firms rather than a CPA-only price list, and they remain the only form-by-form figures anyone publishes. A newer survey exists and measures something broader: Ignition’s 2025 pricing benchmark, a survey of 219 of its own US accounting-firm customers fielded in July 2025, found nearly half of those firms charging between $400 and $799 for a basic individual return.
The short version: treat the per-form averages below as the shape of the bill rather than a quote, get a fixed fee in writing with the forms named, and read the add-on list, because that is where the number usually grows.
If you are weighing a CPA against software, a volunteer site or a storefront preparer, how much tax preparation costs covers the whole field. This page is about what a professional firm charges for the forms themselves.
What a CPA charges to do taxes, form by form
The National Society of Accountants report is the 20th edition of its Income and Fees of Accountants and Tax Preparers in Public Practice survey. It states that the survey “was conducted during 2020 and covers actual data for 2019 and 2020 and anticipated data for 2021.” Invitations went to 5,372 NSA members and associate members, 1,009 usable surveys came back for a response rate of 18.8%, and almost all 50 states plus the District of Columbia are represented. Fieldwork and tabulation were handled by Association Research, Inc.
Two things about the numbers matter before you use them. Every figure is a mean, not a median, so complex returns pull it upward. And the two Form 1040 rows are not federal returns on their own: the report’s own column headings read “Form 1040 (Itemized-Schedule A & State Return)” and “Form 1040 (Not Itemized & State return)”. Quote those figures without the state return attached and you have the wrong price.
| Return or schedule | Average fee | Source and data years |
|---|---|---|
| Form 1040, not itemized, and a state return | $220 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1040, itemized with Schedule A, and a state return | $323 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Schedule C, business, added to a 1040 | $192 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Schedule SE, self-employment tax, added to a 1040 | $41 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Schedule E, rental, added to a 1040 | $145 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1065, partnership | $733 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1120, C corporation | $913 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1120-S, S corporation | $903 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
The schedules are charged on top of the return, not instead of it. A Schedule C is an add-on and never a return price on its own.
A sole proprietor, worked through
A self-employed person filing a Schedule C with a standard deduction adds three of the survey’s own line items:
$220 for the 1040 and a state return, plus $192 for the Schedule C, plus $41 for the Schedule SE, comes to $453.
Itemize instead and the first number changes: $323 plus $192 plus $41 is $556. The survey does not publish either total as a single figure. It publishes the parts, and this is what adding them gives.
An S corporation owner, worked through
An owner-operator with an S corporation files two returns, the business one and a personal one:
$903 for the Form 1120-S, plus $323 for a 1040 with Schedule A and a state return, comes to $1,226.
If the firm also runs the year-end information returns, the survey’s averages for those are $69.75 for W-2s and $67.72 for 1099s, which takes the same engagement to $1,363.47.
What firms reported charging in 2025
The Ignition 2025/2026 U.S. Accounting and Tax Pricing Benchmark asks a different question from the NSA survey. It reports the share of firms sitting in each fee band rather than an average fee, and it covers two broad return types rather than individual forms. Its 219 respondents are Ignition’s own US accounting-firm customers, surveyed in July 2025, which is not a representative sample of US firms, so read it as what those firms reported and nothing wider.
The report defines a basic individual return as one that includes “mostly pre-filled data and some deductions but no rental property, capital gains, etc.”
| Annual fee band, basic individual return | Share of firms |
|---|---|
| Less than $400 | 10.1% |
| $400 to $599 | 26.8% |
| $600 to $799 | 21.7% |
| $800 to $999 | 14.6% |
| $1,000 to $1,199 | 8.1% |
| $1,200 to $1,500 | 8.6% |
| Greater than $1,500 | 4.5% |
| Not applicable | 5.6% |
Source: Ignition 2025/2026 U.S. Accounting and Tax Pricing Benchmark, fielded July 2025.
The report does not define a business tax return by form, so the second table covers whatever its respondents treat as one.
| Annual fee band, business tax return | Share of firms |
|---|---|
| Less than $500 | 0% |
| $500 to $999 | 13.6% |
| $1,000 to $1,499 | 29.3% |
| $1,500 to $1,999 | 26.3% |
| $2,000 to $2,499 | 14.1% |
| $2,500 to $3,000 | 9.6% |
| Greater than $3,000 | 5.1% |
| Not applicable | 2% |
Source: Ignition 2025/2026 U.S. Accounting and Tax Pricing Benchmark, fielded July 2025.
Read the two tables together and the shape is clear. Nearly half of the firms surveyed, 26.8% plus 21.7% or 48.5%, put a basic individual return between $400 and $799, and 29.3% plus 26.3% or 55.6% put a business return between $1,000 and $1,999. Not one respondent charged under $500 for a business return.
What the gap between the two surveys does not measure is fee inflation. The NSA asked its own members for averages on named forms in 2019 and 2020. Ignition asked one software vendor’s customers which band they sit in during 2025. Two different populations answering two different questions cannot be subtracted from each other, so the distance between $323 and the $400 to $799 band is not a rate of increase.
Looking forward, 79.9% of the firms in the Ignition survey said they planned to raise fees in 2026, most commonly by 5% (37.1% of firms) or 10% (30.3%).
Why a CPA’s fee differs from another preparer’s
Here is the statistic that explains most of the price spread on any given form. The IRS publishes a count of preparer tax identification numbers: as of 09/01/2026 there were 886,338 PTIN holders, of whom 209,076 were CPAs and 71,966 were enrolled agents. That is roughly one paid preparer in four holding the credential most people assume their preparer has.
Anyone with a PTIN may prepare and sign a federal return for money. What the credential buys is authority afterward. The IRS states that enrolled agents, certified public accountants and attorneys “have unlimited representation rights before the IRS,” meaning they can represent a taxpayer on any matter, including audits, collections and appeals, whether or not they prepared the return. Annual Filing Season Program participants have limited rights and may only represent clients whose returns they prepared and signed, before revenue agents and similar IRS employees. PTIN holders with no credential have had no representation authority since January 1, 2016.
A CPA is licensed by a state board of accountancy rather than by the IRS, and the license covers far more than tax, including audit and review work no other preparer may sign. An enrolled agent is licensed federally by the IRS for tax matters and has the same unlimited representation rights at the IRS. Paying a CPA premium purely for IRS representation is therefore not a good reason to pay it.
None of this comes with a published price difference. The National Society of Accountants surveys accountants and tax preparers in public practice, so its averages mix CPAs with non-CPA preparers. The National Association of Tax Professionals fielded a newer fee study and published a summary on October 1, 2025, but its fee tables are members-only. What the public post does say is that “83% raise fees every one to two years, typically by 6-10%” and that “nearly half establish a minimum fee and then adjust the price based on the complexity or value provided.” No current public survey prices the same return by credential, so any article that hands you a CPA rate against an enrolled agent rate is quoting something it cannot show you.
What sits outside the quoted fee
The per-form averages cover the return. These are the items the survey found firms charge for separately, with the share of firms that charge and the average fee when they do.
| Extra service | Firms that charge | Average when charged |
|---|---|---|
| Preparing W-2s | 75.6% | $69.75 |
| Preparing 1099s | 85.0% | $67.72 |
| Disorganized or incomplete records | 78% | $165.82 |
| Answering an IRS letter on a return the firm did not prepare | 67% | $161.61 |
| Filing an extension | 42%, since 58% do not charge | $55.94 |
| Records arriving after the firm’s deadline | 26%, since 74% do not charge | $116.97 |
| Expediting a return | 32%, since 68% do not charge | $136.32 |
Four points worth drawing out of that table.
State returns beyond the first are outside the headline number by construction. The survey’s Form 1040 figures include one state return in the fee. A second state, whether from a move, a rental property or remote work, is additional work the survey does not price.
Disorganized records are the most reliably expensive thing a client brings through the door: more firms charge for messy books than charge for an extension, and the average surcharge of $165.82 is over half the price of the itemized return itself. Bookkeeping clean-up billed as its own service averaged $108.61 an hour for QuickBooks and bookkeeping advisory work and $105.51 an hour for write-up work in the same survey. Cleaning up your own records before the handover is the cheapest lever you have.
Deadlines are a real term of business. Among firms that charge for late information, the survey found the firm’s internal deadline set an average of 16 days before the filing deadline. Ask what yours is.
IRS notices and audits are priced as separate engagements. In-person audit representation averaged $167.63 an hour, with 84% of firms charging for it, and 68% of firms asked for a retainer on IRS audit work, averaging $902. Prior-year return preparation carried an average retainer of $377.
Fixed fee or hourly, and why the answer is drifting
Firms quote tax returns both ways, and the survey publishes both. For a Form 1040 with Schedule A and a state return, the average hourly fee was $161.34 while the average minimum fee for the same return was $249.29, against the $323 average fee actually charged. The minimum is the floor the firm will not go below regardless of how simple your return turns out to be.
| Work | Average hourly fee | Source and data years |
|---|---|---|
| Form 1040, itemized, with a state return | $161.34 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1040, not itemized, with a state return | $153.74 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1065, partnership | $177.29 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1120-S, S corporation | $179.81 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Form 1120, C corporation | $181.57 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| Federal and state tax returns, as a service line | $179.71 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
| QuickBooks or bookkeeping advisory | $108.61 | NSA fee survey, 2019 to 2020 |
The direction of travel since then is away from the clock. The AICPA published its 2025 National MAP Survey on September 10, 2025, drawing on representatives from over 1,400 CPA firms with 1,073 completing it and 81% of responses from firms with revenue of $5 million and below. It reports “a slow but steady increase in value and fixed pricing offset with a decline in traditional hourly-based billing,” along with a median 6.7% increase in total net client fees. It publishes no hourly billing rates publicly, so anyone quoting an AICPA rate is quoting something the AICPA has not released.
The Ignition benchmark puts a figure on how far that has gone among its own respondents. Of the 219 firms it surveyed in July 2025, 37% priced tax preparation as a fixed fee and 23.3% as a minimum fee adjusted for complexity, against 2.7% billing tax preparation by the hour. That report publishes no hourly rates at all, only fee bands.
For a return, a fixed fee is almost always the better arrangement for the client, because the hours depend on how the firm works rather than on anything you control. Hourly is defensible for clean-up, notices and planning conversations, where the scope genuinely is open.
What moves the price up and down
The biggest single driver in the data is not the preparer’s credential. It is the market the firm sells into. The same survey cut the hourly and minimum fee for a Form 1040 with Schedule A and a state return by firm and market type:
| Cut of the survey | Average hourly fee | Average minimum fee |
|---|---|---|
| National total | $161.34 | $249.29 |
| Large city | $179.30 | $291.42 |
| Small city | $135.59 | $199.53 |
| Rural | $130.57 | $204.26 |
| Sole proprietor practice | $148.13 | $220.52 |
| Professional corporation | $209.44 | $360.89 |
| Clients’ median household income under $50,000 | $92.50 | $156.80 |
| Clients’ median household income $150,000 and over | $191.10 | $341.96 |
Rural to large city is a 37% swing on the hourly rate. Poorest client base to richest is a 107% swing. The survey’s own caution on regional figures reads: “Fees vary sharply state-by-state. For more specific comparatives, please turn to the state and regional sections of this report.” Its state-level cells are thin, 1,009 responses spread across the country, so treat any state average as an illustration of how wide the spread is rather than as the going rate where you live.
Everything else that moves your number is inside your return: how many schedules it carries, how many states you owe, how many owners share the entity, whether there are K-1s to issue, and how close your books are to usable on the day you hand them over.
How to get a quote you can compare
Three firms will quote three different things unless you make them quote the same thing. Ask for the fee in writing against a named list:
- The forms and schedules, by number, including the state returns and how many are covered.
- Whether the fee is fixed for the engagement or an estimate against an hourly rate, and what the rate is.
- The minimum fee, which is a different number from the quote.
- What happens to the price if your records need work, and what the firm counts as needing work.
- Whether W-2s, 1099s and quarterly filings are inside the fee or billed on top.
- Who handles an IRS notice on this return, on what terms, and whether that person can represent you if it escalates.
- The firm’s internal cut-off date for receiving your information, and the charge for missing it.
Whoever signs your return must have a PTIN and must sign it. A preparer who prepares for a fee and leaves the signature block empty is the pattern the IRS warns about under the name ghost preparer.
How to find the right one
Start from the credential, then the fit. The IRS keeps a Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications, which lists preparers holding credentials the IRS recognizes. A CPA license is issued by a state board of accountancy, so the board that issued it is the authoritative check; NASBA’s licensee lookup at cpaverify.org covers most but not all of the country, since its database is aggregated from 53 of the 55 CPA licensing jurisdictions and excludes Hawaii and New Mexico. Our directory lists firms by state and city. If what you actually need is someone to own forecasting, margin analysis and the monthly reporting pack rather than a return, that is fractional CFO work and a different hire.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a CPA charge to do taxes for a small business?
The only national per-form survey, the National Society of Accountants’ 2019 to 2020 edition, averaged $733 for a Form 1065 partnership return, $903 for a Form 1120-S and $913 for a Form 1120, and an owner also files personally, which averaged $323 for a Form 1040 with Schedule A plus a state return. Those are six-year-old national means, and information returns such as W-2s and 1099s are usually billed on top. For a newer but broader figure, Ignition’s 2025 pricing benchmark, a survey of 219 of its own US accounting-firm customers fielded in July 2025, found 55.6% of those firms charging between $1,000 and $1,999 for a business tax return, which the report does not define by form.
Do CPAs charge a flat fee or by the hour for a tax return?
Both exist, and the same survey publishes both: an average hourly fee of $161.34 for a Form 1040 with Schedule A plus a state return, against an average fee actually charged of $323 and an average minimum fee of $249.29. The AICPA’s 2025 MAP Survey describes a continuing shift toward fixed and value pricing and away from hourly billing. For a return with known forms, ask for a fixed fee.
Is a CPA more expensive than an enrolled agent?
No public survey prices the same return by credential, so there is no honest number to give. What is documented is that enrolled agents, CPAs and attorneys all hold unlimited representation rights before the IRS, so paying more for representation alone buys nothing extra. Of 886,338 PTIN holders as of September 1, 2026, 209,076 were CPAs and 71,966 were enrolled agents.
Does a CPA charge extra for a state return?
The widely quoted National Society of Accountants averages already include one state return, because the survey’s categories are the federal 1040 together with a state return. Additional states are extra work outside that figure. If you moved during the year, own property in another state or have remote employees, ask for each state to be priced by name.
Why is my CPA’s bill higher than the survey average?
Three common reasons, all of them in the data. The survey figures are means from 2019 and 2020, and fees have risen since. Large-city firms billed 37% more per hour than rural firms for the identical return. And 78% of firms charge for disorganized or incomplete records, at an average of $165.82, which is the one line you can reduce before you hand anything over.
Sources
10 links
- National Society of Accountants, 2020 to 2021 Income and Fees of Accountants and Tax Preparers in Public Practice, full study
- National Society of Accountants, Income and Fees Survey landing page
- IRS: federal tax return preparer statistics
- IRS: understanding tax return preparer credentials and qualifications
- IRS: choosing a tax professional
- IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications
- NASBA: how many CPAs are there
- AICPA: CPA firms report steady growth in revenue and profit, 2025 National MAP Survey
- NATP: how much do tax professionals charge in 2025
- Ignition: 2025/2026 U.S. Accounting and Tax Pricing Benchmark
