Updated August 25, 2026. Quick answer: The IRS publishes its own estimate on page 121 of the Form 1040 instructions: $290 average out-of-pocket cost, $160 without a business schedule and $610 with one. The headline average describes almost nobody, and the IRS says in the same paragraph that the cost varies extensively. It is total cost for the job, not a preparer’s fee.
What is usually said, and what the sources say
Every page that answers this question quotes one number – an average preparation fee from a trade-association survey – and presents it as what filing costs. A single average cannot be right, and the body that publishes the largest estimate says so in the same paragraph as the estimate.
The IRS publishes its own out-of-pocket estimate every year, on page 121 of the Form 1040 instructions, and splits it by the only variable that moves it much: whether you file a business schedule. The all-taxpayer figure is an average of two populations whose costs differ by nearly four times, so it describes almost nobody.
The number the government publishes about itself
Page 121 of the Form 1040 instructions carries a table headed “Estimated Average Taxpayer Burden for Individuals by Activity”. It is the IRS’s estimate of what complying costs, published every year under the Paperwork Reduction Act, and it is split by whether the return carries a business schedule.
| Type of filer | Share of returns | Average time | Average out-of-pocket cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| All taxpayers | 100% | 12 hours | $290 |
| No business schedule | 71% | 8 hours | $160 |
| With a business schedule | 29% | 21 hours | $610 |
Source: IRS, Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), page 121. Dollars are rounded to the nearest $10 by the IRS.
The IRS defines the split in the table’s own footnote: “You are considered a “business” filer if you file one or more of the following with Form 1040 or 1040-SR: Schedule C, E, or F or Form 2106.” (IRS, Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), page 121).
Why the headline figure describes almost nobody
The all-taxpayer figure is $290. Neither group pays it. One group pays $160 and is 71% of returns; the other pays $610 and is 29%. The second costs 3.81 times the first, and the average sits between them where nobody stands. A single schedule C is what moves you from one row to the other.
The IRS says so itself, in the paragraph immediately above the table: “tax return preparation fees and other out-of-pocket costs vary extensively” (IRS, Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), page 121). The sentence continues, in the instructions’ own hyphenated column, that the variation depends on the taxpayer’s situation, the software or professional preparer used, and geographic location. The body that publishes the biggest estimate of what filing costs declines to defend it as a number you can expect to pay.
Read the figure for what it is. It is total out-of-pocket cost for the whole job — software, a preparer’s fee, postage, whatever you spent — averaged across everyone in the group, including the people who paid nobody. It is not a quote, and it is not a preparer’s fee.
Nobody publishes a credential-by-credential fee, so no figure appears here
The obvious next question is what a CPA charges against an enrolled agent against a preparer with no credential. Figures for that circulate widely. Every one we traced ends at a trade association’s fee survey that we could not read at its source, and a figure whose source you cannot open is not evidence. No credential-split fee appears on this page, because we could not read one.
Shopping the price is structurally harder than it should be, and the extract shows why: of 858,780 preparers in the IRS’s own file, 235,392 publish a website — 27.4%. Most of this market has no public price and no public page.
Before you price it, check whether you have to pay at all
Two federal programmes “offer free basic tax return preparation to qualified individuals” (IRS, Free tax return preparation for qualifying taxpayers). The IRS page archived here names an income figure for the assistance programme, and describes the second: “the TCE program offers free tax help, particularly for those who are 60 years of age and older, specializing in questions about pensions and retirement-related issues unique to seniors” (IRS, Free tax return preparation for qualifying taxpayers).
The eligibility line moves and the sites are local and seasonal, so the operative test is the IRS’s own page rather than anything reproduced here. The point is only that the $160 row has a zero underneath it that a fee comparison never mentions.
If the question behind the fee is a specific letter rather than a return, the cost of the answer is different again: responding to an IRS notice and first-time penalty abatement both have free routes that do not involve buying preparation.
What this page does not settle
This page reports one federal estimate and what its publisher says about it. It is not a quote, a price guide, or advice on whether to hire anyone.
The IRS figure is out-of-pocket cost for the whole job, not a preparer's fee. It includes tax software, postage and anything else you paid, and it covers filers who paid nobody at all. It is not a quote for hiring somebody and must not be read as one.
It is a modelled estimate published under the Paperwork Reduction Act, not a survey of invoices. Publication 5743 describes the model; we read the table, not the model's internals.
No primary source we read publishes a preparation fee by credential, by state, or by form. Every credential-split fee figure in circulation traces to a trade-association survey we could not read at its source, so no such figure appears on this page.
The free programmes have eligibility rules that change, and the income figure on the IRS page is the one that page carried on the date shown. Site availability is local and seasonal and we did not check a single site.
Sources
- IRS, Free tax return preparation for qualifying taxpayers — https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers
- IRS, Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), page 121 — https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf
- IRS FOIA consolidated PTIN extract, sha256 393647afbb1d4965, fetched 2026-08-25 — https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/ptin-information-and-the-freedom-of-information-act
- IRS federal tax return preparer statistics, data current as of 08/01/2026 — https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/tax-professional-management-office-federal-tax-return-preparer-statistics
Related: How Many Paid Tax Preparers Have No Credential At All · What A Tax Preparer Credential Actually Buys You · First-time penalty abatement.
General information drawn from the federal statutes, regulations, court opinion and IRS datasets named above, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change and the IRS republishes these files; the figures here are what each source said on the date above, and each is linked so you can check it.
The same IRS extract behind the website figure above also records a business country for the preparers who gave one, and that count is on is your tax return being prepared overseas.