Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: The 2025 chart lists 621330 as offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians). It has no row that names counselors, so the chart’s wording is the closest match rather than a label. The code goes on line B, and neighbors such as 621112 and 624100 may read closer depending on your principal source of receipts.
On deductions by profession: tax deductions for therapists in private practice.
The closest wording on the chart
Searchers often type counselor, therapist or psychologist. The chart uses the word practitioners instead. The row, and the two rows most often compared with it, are below.
| Code | Wording on the IRS chart |
|---|---|
| 621330 | Offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians) |
| 621112 | Offices of physicians, mental health specialists |
| 624100 | Individual & family services |
The closest wording is “Offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians)”. Its parenthesis is part of the chart’s text, and the physician row for mental health specialists sits right beside it on the chart.
How the form wants it written
Line A asks for a description of the work: “Describe the business or professional activity that provided your principal source of income reported on line 1.” Line B asks for the code: “Enter on line B the six-digit code from the Principal Business or Professional Activity Codes chart” The code goes in the box on line B, beside the description.
An example of the kind of description, not IRS wording: a line A phrase such as individual and family counseling in a private office. The kind of clients and the format of sessions stay on line A because the six-digit code on line B cannot carry them.
Counselor, therapist, social worker: what the chart does not name
Before relying on a job title, check it against the chart. The chart has no row that names counselors, psychologists, psychotherapists or social workers. Each of those words appears nowhere in the wording of any row, so none of them is a match by name.
What is on the chart is a group of descriptions: “Offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians)”, “Offices of physicians, mental health specialists” and “Individual & family services”. A reader who is a counselor compares those three phrases with the work they do.
Why 621112 and 624100 get compared
The first neighbor is “Offices of physicians, mental health specialists”, worded as an office of physicians. The second is “Individual & family services”, worded as a service to individuals and families rather than an office. A few other rows are worth a glance for a practice that does more than one thing.
| Code | Wording on the IRS chart |
|---|---|
| 621330 | Offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians) |
| 621112 | Offices of physicians, mental health specialists |
| 624100 | Individual & family services |
| 624310 | Vocational rehabilitation services |
| 611000 | Educational services (including schools, colleges, & universities) |
| 621399 | Offices of all other miscellaneous health practitioners |
The row “Educational services (including schools, colleges, & universities)” is the education row, so it matches teaching rather than counseling clients. The rule for choosing between rows is the chart’s own.
The chart’s rule has two steps: “Select the category that best describes your primary business activity”, and then “Then select the activity that best identifies the principal source of your sales or receipts”.
Mixed income and what comes after the code
A practice that earns from sessions and from workshops or courses is deciding among rows by the largest source of receipts. For a second, unrelated business the instructions say: “If you owned more than one business, complete a separate Schedule C for each business.” The code goes on line B of Schedule C (Form 1040). Receipts begin at Schedule C line 1, payments reported to you may appear on Form 1099-NEC box 1, and the whole chart is on the Schedule C business codes: the full IRS list page.
Edition and chart year
This page reads the 2025 Schedule C (Form 1040) and its 2025 instructions, the files for the tax year 2025 return, filed in 2026. The schedule says “Attach to Form 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-SS, 1040-NR, or 1041”. Check the tax year printed on the schedule you are filling in and use the chart that comes with that year’s instructions, because a different year’s chart can list different codes or reword them.
Common mistakes
- Looking for a row named counselor. The chart’s wording is “Offices of mental health practitioners (except physicians)”, and the word counselor is not on any row.
- Reading the physician row because it mentions mental health. Its wording is “Offices of physicians, mental health specialists”, which is written for physicians.
- Leaving the choice to a job title. The rule is “Then select the activity that best identifies the principal source of your sales or receipts”, so the wording is compared with the activity.
Related: Schedule C (Form 1040), Schedule C business codes: the full IRS list, Schedule C line 1, and Form 1099-NEC box 1.
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Answer againSources
- Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (2025): IRS archived PDF (irs.gov)
- Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business (2025): IRS archived PDF (irs.gov)
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 30, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.