TAX PREPARATION FEES GUIDE
Tax preparation fees: what to charge per return, per form and per hour
The 2025–2026 US fees for a simple, itemized, self-employed and rental return, what a business return costs, the per-schedule fees from the profession's own fee study, hourly rates, the rules on how a preparer may charge — and a free calculator that turns them into a fee schedule you can put on your website.
Free calculator · No sign-up · Nothing you type is saved
The short answer
Half of all tax preparers who charge by the hour fall between $129 and $250, with the average set rate at $182 an hour in 2025 — up from $179 in 2023 — though only 7% of preparers charge hourly; most charge per form (the 2025 NATP Fee Study, November 2025, whose respondents prepare returns in every US state). The study's per-form averages, as Ramsey Solutions reports them: $376 for a Form 1040 with Schedule A and a state return, $317 for a non-itemized 1040 with a state return, then $137 for a Schedule C, $69 for a Schedule D, $114 for a Schedule E and $127 for a Schedule F on top.
By complexity, SK Financial's 2026 guide puts individual returns at $200–$600 — $220–$400 for a simple return with the standard deduction, $320–$600 itemized, $500–$1,200 for freelancers and the self-employed, $500–$1,500 for rental property owners — and business returns at $750–$2,500+ for an LLC, S corporation or C corporation, with hourly rates of $100–$400. It reports the NSA survey's averages too: $323 for an itemized 1040 with a state return, $192 for adding a Schedule C, $733 for a Form 1065, $903 for an 1120-S and $913 for an 1120 — and the IRS's own estimate of what a small partnership ($3,300) or S corporation ($4,200) spends out of pocket on its return.
At the simpler end, AmeriTax puts a Form 1040 with the standard deduction at $150–$250, $300 or more once schedules are added, a Schedule C return at $300–$500, partnerships and corporations at $500–$1,000 or more, and hourly rates at $100–$300 (March 2026).
Price per form, publish the fee schedule, and put it on your website — in the US, Circular 230 bars a practitioner from basing the fee on the size of the refund, so the fee schedule is the thing to sell. The client comparing preparers in February picks the one whose fee for their return they can see.
FREE PRICE CALCULATOR
What should I charge for this return?
Pick a plain 1040 and tick the schedules it needs, or pick the return by complexity, the business return, or the hours. The range uses exactly the published US figures in the table below — SK Financial's 2026 tiers, the NATP study's hourly band, its per-schedule averages as Ramsey reports them.
Suggested price
$220–$400
form 1040 with a state return, standard deduction (flat price), simple individual return
A starting range from published US figures — what clients typically pay; the per-schedule lines are the fee study's averages, not ranges. Not a fee for a client until you've seen their documents: check it against your own costs (the formula below) and your market before it goes on your fee schedule.
Show this price on your website ↓Show this price on your website
Put your tax preparation prices where customers look
Add your town, and Zarla builds your tax preparation website from this one line. Then tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your prices, and change them any time.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
RATES · OCTOBER 2026
Tax preparation fees by return and by hour (2026)
Typical US figures. For context: the 2025 NATP Fee Study's averages are $376 for a 1040 with Schedule A and a state return and $317 non-itemized (as Ramsey Solutions reports them); the NSA survey's are $323 for an itemized 1040 with a state return and $733–$913 for business forms (as SK Financial reports them); AmeriTax's simple-return range is $150–$250 (March 2026).
| The job | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Form 1040 with a state return, standard deduction (flat price) | Simple individual return: $220–$400 · SK Financial CPA |
| Individual return by complexity (flat price) | Itemized return (Schedule A): $320–$600 · Freelancer or self-employed: $500–$1,200 · Rental property owner: $500–$1,500 · SK Financial CPA |
| Business return (flat price) | LLC, S corporation or C corporation: $750–$2,500+ · SK Financial CPA |
| Hourly | $129–$250 per hour · about $260–$500 for 2 hours · National Association of Tax Professionals |
| Hourly, the middle half of preparers | $129–$250 an hour · National Association of Tax Professionals |
Rates read off each publisher's page in October 2026. The calculator above uses exactly these numbers. Full source list below.
ADD-ONS AND ADJUSTMENTS
What to add per schedule
Each schedule on top of the 1040 is its own line on the fee schedule — these are the profession's own averages for 2025.
| What | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Schedule C, business income (study average) | +$137 · Ramsey Solutions |
| Schedule D, gains and losses (study average) | +$69 · Ramsey Solutions |
| Schedule E, rental income (study average) | +$114 · Ramsey Solutions |
| Schedule F, farm income (study average) | +$127 · Ramsey Solutions |
Where a row shows a sum (a rate × a quantity, or a percentage worked out from published dollar ranges), the arithmetic is ours and the inputs are the publisher's.
THE PRICING FORMULA
How to price a tax return
Six steps from the hours in a return to the fee schedule on your website.
Know your true hourly cost
Your wage, payroll costs, software, the PTIN, insurance, continuing education and the unbillable hours of a short season — then compare it with the $129–$250 an hour the middle half of hourly preparers charge, around a $182 average (2025 NATP Fee Study).
Price per form, not per hour
Only 7% of preparers in the NATP study charge a set hourly rate; the rest price the form or the return. Start from a base 1040 fee — the study's averages are $317 non-itemized and $376 with Schedule A, both with a state return (as Ramsey reports them) — and add each schedule as its own line.
Tier the individual returns
$220–$400 simple, $320–$600 itemized, $500–$1,200 self-employed, $500–$1,500 with rental property (SK Financial's 2026 guide). A client sees their own situation in the tier before they call.
Price business returns on their own schedule
$750–$2,500 or more for an LLC, S corporation or C corporation (SK Financial); the NSA survey's averages are $733 for a 1065, $903 for an 1120-S and $913 for an 1120. Bookkeeping quality moves the price more than the entity type — say so in the engagement letter.
Charge the way the rules allow
In the US, Treasury Circular 230 (§10.27) bars a practitioner from an unconscionable fee and from a contingent fee — one based on a percentage of the refund or the taxes saved — for preparing a return, allowing one only in connection with an IRS examination of or challenge to a return (an amended return or refund claim filed within 120 days of a written examination notice counts), a refund claim for interest or penalties, or a court case. Anyone paid to prepare federal returns needs a PTIN, $18.75 a year (IRS). Some states register or license preparers too — check your state's rules.
Raise the fee schedule every year
The NATP average hourly rate moved from $179 in 2023 to $182 in 2025. Publish next season's fees in the autumn and tell returning clients a month ahead — the price increase letter below is the template.
The formula, worked through
Say a client with a W-2, a small side business and a state return.
Per form, from the 2025 NATP Fee Study's averages as Ramsey reports them: $317 for the non-itemized 1040 with a state return, plus $137 for the Schedule C — $454. The NSA survey's version, as SK Financial reports it, is $323 for the 1040 plus $192 for the Schedule C — $515. By tier, SK Financial's self-employed range is $500–$1,200, so a $500–$550 fee sits at the bottom of the tier and the top of the per-form sums.
Charged by the hour instead — three hours at the study's $129–$250 band — the same return is $387–$750, which is why most preparers price the form and keep the hour for the client who arrives with a shoebox. The figures are the publishers'; your software, your season and your market make them yours.
What to charge in your area
The ranges on this page are US national figures. By region, the 2025 NATP Fee Study's average fee for an itemized 1040 with Schedule A and a state return, as Ramsey Solutions reports it, runs from $350 in the Midwest and $359 in the Great Plains to $378 in the West (California, Oregon, Washington), with the Northeast at $372, the Rocky Mountain states at $370, the Southeast at $367, the South Central states at $366 and the East at $361.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis puts overall prices in California at 110.7 against a US average of 100, and Arkansas at 86.9 (2024 regional price parities, released February 2026) — a yardstick for the cost of living behind your hourly rate, though the fee study's regional spread is narrower than the index.
Outside the US, treat the ranges as a shape, not a price — a base fee per return, a line per schedule, hourly for the shoebox — and check what local practices publish on their own websites. The US rules on contingent fees and preparer registration are US rules: confirm what applies where you practise.
Put your prices on your website
A price list — even “from” prices — answers a customer's first question before they pick up the phone, and it's the line an AI assistant can quote when someone asks what a tax return costs near them.
If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor “add a pricing section: simple returns from $220, itemized returns from $320, self-employed returns from $500” and your prices go on the site, in a section you can edit any time. Want to see a finished site first? Browse tax preparation website templates or see how Zarla builds tax preparation websites.
Still setting up? Write your tax preparation business plan, browse tax preparation business name ideas, and when the prices are set, read how to get your business on Google. Raising prices you set a year ago? The price increase letter tells customers a month ahead.
Opening the practice? How to start a tax preparation business covers the PTIN, the software and the first clients.
Tax preparation fees: common questions
$220–$400 with a state return and the standard deduction (SK Financial's 2026 guide); AmeriTax's range is $150–$250 (March 2026), and the 2025 NATP Fee Study's average for a non-itemized 1040 with a state return is $317 (as Ramsey Solutions reports it). The calculator above adds the schedules.
$137 on top of the 1040 on average (2025 NATP Fee Study, as Ramsey reports it); the NSA survey's average is $192 (as SK Financial reports it). As a whole return, AmeriTax prices a Schedule C filer at $300–$500 (March 2026) and SK Financial a freelancer at $500–$1,200 (its 2026 guide).
$750–$2,500 or more for an LLC, S corporation or C corporation (SK Financial's 2026 guide); AmeriTax puts partnerships and corporations at $500–$1,000 or more (March 2026). The NSA survey's averages are $733 for a Form 1065, $903 for an 1120-S and $913 for an 1120, and the IRS estimates a small partnership spends about $3,300 out of pocket on its return and a small S corporation $4,200 (as SK Financial reports them).
$129–$250 an hour is the middle half of preparers who charge hourly, around a $182 average (2025 NATP Fee Study); SK Financial's range is $100–$400 and AmeriTax's $100–$300. Only 7% of preparers charge by the hour — most price per form.
In the US, not as a practitioner — an attorney, CPA, enrolled agent or anyone else who practises before the IRS: Treasury Circular 230 (§10.27) bars a contingent fee — one based on a percentage of the refund or of the taxes saved — except in connection with an IRS examination of or challenge to a return, a refund claim for interest or penalties, or a court case, and bars unconscionable fees. Price per form instead, and check your state's rules too.
In the US, anyone paid to prepare or help prepare federal returns needs a Preparer Tax Identification Number from the IRS — $18.75 a year, renewed each season (IRS). Some states, California and New York among them, register or license preparers as well — check your state's rules.
Yes — a fee schedule by return type, with the per-schedule lines. Clients compare preparers in February and book the one whose fee for their situation they can see, and an AI assistant can only cite a published fee. On a Zarla site, tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your fee schedule, and change it each season.
Where these numbers come from
Every range on this page is read off a published source, dated below. They're US figures for individual and small-business returns — typical, not a rule; your costs and your market come first.
- National Association of Tax Professionals — 2025 NATP Fee Study, Media Highlights (PDF) — dated November 2025, read October 2026
- Ramsey Solutions — How Much Does a Tax Pro Cost? (reporting the 2025 NATP Fee Study) — dated January 2026, read October 2026
- SK Financial CPA — CPA Tax Preparation Cost 2026: Average Fees by Return Type (with the NSA survey and IRS estimates) — no date on the page, read October 2026
- AmeriTax Dallas — How Much Do Tax Preparers Charge? — dated March 2026, read October 2026
- IRS — PTIN requirements for tax return preparers — dated October 2026, read October 2026
- IRS — Treasury Department Circular No. 230, §10.27 Fees (PDF) — dated June 2014, read October 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — regional price parities by state, 2024 — dated February 2026, read September 2026
Put your tax preparation fees on your website
Add your town and your business name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line. Your fee schedule goes in a pricing section you edit by chat.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.