What a tax preparer costs in the US
The wage BLS measured across 76,480 jobs, what an employer pays on top of it, the pay in every state, and which of the job's core tasks already show up in AI use.
Medians for the whole US. Your own cost depends on where you hire, the benefits you offer and the hours worked.
- Median wage
- $54,920
- Hourly wage
- $26.40
- Loaded per hour
- $32.88
- Middle half earns
- $38,910 to $76,300
- Jobs in the US
- 76,480
Wage × 1.2455 for benefits and payroll taxes, from BLS.
A tax preparer in the US is paid a median $54,920 a year, $26.40 an hour, across 76,480 jobs. With benefits, a small employer pays about $68,400. Of its 10 core tasks, 4 showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026, and in each Claude mostly assisted a person.
The work, task by task
The 10 core tasks O*NET lists for tax preparers, most important first, and how each showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026. The bar splits those conversations between Claude doing the task and Claude helping a person do it.
- 01Compute taxes owed or overpaid, using adding machines or personal computers, and complete entries on forms, following tax form instructions and tax tables.
- 02Use all appropriate adjustments, deductions, and credits to keep clients' taxes to a minimum.
- 03Interview clients to obtain additional information on taxable income and deductible expenses and allowances.
- 04Furnish taxpayers with sufficient information and advice to ensure correct tax form completion.Claude.ai: 49% did the task, 51% helped · API: 90% did the task
- 05Prepare or assist in preparing simple to complex tax returns for individuals or small businesses.
- 06Review financial records, such as income statements and documentation of expenditures to determine forms needed to prepare tax returns.
- 07Check data input or verify totals on forms prepared by others to detect errors in arithmetic, data entry, or procedures.Claude.ai: 50% did the task, 50% helped · API: 94% did the task
- 08Explain federal and state tax laws to individuals and companies.Claude.ai: 29% did the task, 71% helped · API: 72% did the task
- 09Consult tax law handbooks or bulletins to determine procedures for preparation of atypical returns.
- 10Answer questions and provide future tax planning to clients.Claude.ai: 28% did the task, 72% helped
4 of 10 tasks appear in the Claude.ai sample of the Anthropic Economic Index for May 2026. A task without a row had too few conversations for Anthropic to publish, which is not the same as none. Shares are of all sampled Claude.ai conversations, so small figures are normal: 0.06% of every conversation that month was about this occupation.
Pay by state
The median annual wage in each state and DC, and the same wage fully loaded. New York pays the most, $71,850; Alabama the least, $33,280. BLS publishes no figure where its sample is too small, which leaves 3 gaps here.
| State | Median wage | Fully loaded | Middle half | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $33,280 | $41,450 | $25,080 to $36,540 | 290 |
| Alaska | $62,360 | $77,670 | $40,430 to $116,170 | 70 |
| Arizona | $44,770 | $55,760 | $41,690 to $77,320 | 2,240 |
| Arkansas | $35,040 | $43,640 | $29,530 to $41,600 | 550 |
| California | $70,030 | $87,220 | $47,420 to $84,890 | 10,270 |
| Colorado | $62,620 | $77,990 | $43,380 to $75,260 | 1,540 |
| Connecticut | $41,130 | $51,230 | $36,840 to $60,660 | 700 |
| Delaware | $51,960 | $64,720 | $39,320 to $58,470 | 240 |
| District of Columbia | Not published | · | · | · |
| Florida | $49,020 | $61,050 | $35,770 to $63,490 | · |
| Georgia | $49,330 | $61,440 | $37,050 to $63,800 | 1,670 |
| Hawaii | $34,720 | $43,240 | $29,990 to $44,710 | · |
| Idaho | Not published | · | · | · |
| Illinois | $54,480 | $67,850 | $38,120 to $62,910 | 1,310 |
| Indiana | $45,710 | $56,930 | $38,250 to $61,660 | 1,820 |
| Iowa | $53,660 | $66,830 | $38,970 to $73,660 | 780 |
| Kansas | $47,300 | $58,910 | $35,950 to $66,710 | 450 |
| Kentucky | $36,620 | $45,610 | $27,900 to $61,240 | 1,080 |
| Louisiana | $38,740 | $48,250 | $28,210 to $56,300 | 650 |
| Maine | $47,150 | $58,730 | $44,190 to $52,370 | 250 |
| Maryland | $47,020 | $58,560 | $42,190 to $61,570 | 1,240 |
| Massachusetts | $58,400 | $72,740 | $38,730 to $68,710 | 1,500 |
| Michigan | $46,400 | $57,790 | $40,220 to $61,660 | 1,660 |
| Minnesota | $59,200 | $73,730 | $44,250 to $76,870 | 1,040 |
| Mississippi | $50,670 | $63,110 | $34,360 to $76,670 | 580 |
| Missouri | $62,780 | $78,190 | $35,580 to $98,630 | 1,330 |
| Montana | $63,080 | $78,570 | $47,470 to $82,850 | 360 |
| Nebraska | $43,010 | $53,570 | $37,040 to $51,310 | 420 |
| Nevada | $60,000 | $74,730 | $46,630 to $99,500 | 1,410 |
| New Hampshire | $61,370 | $76,440 | $43,520 to $80,230 | 420 |
| New Jersey | $43,420 | $54,080 | $37,790 to $63,050 | 3,220 |
| New Mexico | $38,060 | $47,400 | $28,900 to $46,450 | 340 |
| New York | $71,850 | $89,490 | $57,030 to $101,070 | 7,620 |
| North Carolina | $48,130 | $59,950 | $43,820 to $72,840 | 2,710 |
| North Dakota | $57,060 | $71,070 | $43,870 to $78,460 | 220 |
| Ohio | $49,020 | $61,050 | $37,930 to $57,180 | 1,590 |
| Oklahoma | $42,700 | $53,180 | $29,530 to $50,840 | 1,300 |
| Oregon | $61,370 | $76,440 | $48,830 to $78,090 | 1,590 |
| Pennsylvania | $61,270 | $76,310 | $39,020 to $81,450 | 2,010 |
| Rhode Island | $57,680 | $71,840 | $52,000 to $59,790 | · |
| South Carolina | $39,220 | $48,850 | $30,930 to $71,810 | 1,360 |
| South Dakota | $52,530 | $65,430 | $44,100 to $63,850 | 280 |
| Tennessee | $36,600 | $45,590 | $29,500 to $59,120 | 1,260 |
| Texas | $47,460 | $59,110 | $35,440 to $74,060 | 6,010 |
| Utah | $66,720 | $83,100 | $48,210 to $80,550 | 1,190 |
| Vermont | Not published | · | · | · |
| Virginia | $58,520 | $72,890 | $40,960 to $70,480 | 1,960 |
| Washington | $45,370 | $56,510 | $41,590 to $48,830 | 1,360 |
| West Virginia | $35,880 | $44,690 | $29,840 to $40,240 | 330 |
| Wisconsin | $44,340 | $55,230 | $36,260 to $55,660 | 1,550 |
| Wyoming | $57,990 | $72,230 | $47,470 to $87,240 | 90 |
The same benefits ratio applies in every state, because BLS does not publish benefit costs by business size for each state. The middle half is the 25th to 75th percentile wage.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure is copied from a public file. The only arithmetic is the loaded cost: the wage times 1.2455.
- Wages
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, occupation 13-2082 (Tax Preparers). Annual figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours, as BLS computes them, so they already include pay for paid leave.
- Fully loaded
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (2026 Q2), private businesses with 1 to 49 workers: $37.64 an hour in total compensation over $27.88 in wages plus $2.34 in paid leave gives 1.2455. Paid leave sits in the denominator because the annual wage already pays it.
- Tasks
- O*NET 31.0 core tasks for 13-2082.00, the ten most important by their importance rating. A few occupations list fewer core tasks.
- AI use
- Anthropic Economic Index, release of June 2026, conversations from May 2026. "Did the task" is Anthropic's automation share, where the user directs Claude to do the work; "helped" is augmentation, where the user works with Claude to learn, check or iterate.
- Not measured
- What a particular business pays, and whether an AI system can do a task well. The AI figures count conversations about a task, not jobs replaced.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. AI use data from the Anthropic Economic Index by Anthropic, under CC BY. Wage and benefit data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What would an AI system cost for this work?
Put $68,400 beside the running cost of a system doing the tasks above, with the build counted in year one.
BLS wages May 2025 · O*NET 31.0 · Anthropic Economic Index