OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Prepare tax returns for individuals or small businesses.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($64K): Economics
Largest undergraduate program (36.0% of workers): Accounting
Explore Pathways
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Salary
Median salary: $44,300 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $29,310 and $65,960.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for tax preparers
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Tax Preparers
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of tax preparers who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (77%)
- Consequence of Error (41%)
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Injury and Illness
About 7 tax preparers become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, which reflects fewer events than in 56% of other careers.
All injuries and illnesses
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by tax preparers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), tax preparers typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as tax preparers as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Education level of Tax Preparers
About 56% of tax preparers have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by tax preparers
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 52% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
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College majors held by tax preparers
This table shows the college majors held by people working as tax preparers. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Major
Select any title to learn more about that degree
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
Higher
Similar
Lower
Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
Salary for bachelor's-only
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
Workers with this career/major
Percentage in this career with this major
Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click a program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Not so much?
The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as tax preparers, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
Expand degrees
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Tax Preparers per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most tax preparers? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as tax preparers. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where tax preparers earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for tax preparers compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for tax preparers.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which tax preparers earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Tax Preparers (ACS)
Employment
29% of Tax preparers are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 29% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 83% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of tax preparers by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Tax preparers and gender
With 61% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 73% of careers.
Gender of Tax preparers
Men (39%)
Women (61%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers
in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%, and the difference
for tax preparers tops that, with the median salary for
men 24% higher than the median
salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Tax preparers
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Tax preparers.
Race/origin of tax preparers
White (72% )
Black (13% )
Asian (8% )
Other (3% )
Multiracial (2% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
