---
title: "Tax Preparer"
description: "Prepare tax returns for individuals or small businesses."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/tax-preparer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Tax Preparer

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-2082 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-2082.00

Prepare tax returns for individuals or small businesses.

Also advertised as: CPA (Certified Public Accountant); Enrolled Agent; Income Tax Preparer; Tax Accountant; Tax Advisor; Tax Associate; Tax Consultant; Tax Preparer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $54,920 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $26.40/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $33,760 to $99,270, with the middle half between $38,910 and $76,300
- **Total US employment:** 76,480
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 9,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 12/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 76,480 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $33,760 |
| 25th | $38,910 |
| 50th (median) | $54,920 |
| 75th | $76,300 |
| 90th | $99,270 |
| Mean (average) | $60,930 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $71,850 | $66,576 | 7,620 |
| CA | $70,030 | $63,250 | 10,270 |
| UT | $66,720 | $67,487 | 1,190 |
| MT | $63,080 | $66,649 | 360 |
| MO | $62,780 | $69,128 | 1,330 |
| CO | $62,620 | $60,765 | 1,540 |
| AK | $62,360 | $60,923 | 70 |
| NH | $61,370 | $58,916 | 420 |
| OR | $61,370 | $59,374 | 1,590 |
| PA | $61,270 | $62,795 | 2,010 |
| NV | $60,000 | $60,013 | 1,410 |
| MN | $59,200 | $60,028 | 1,040 |
| VA | $58,520 | $57,881 | 1,960 |
| MA | $58,400 | $55,221 | 1,500 |
| WY | $57,990 | $62,563 | 90 |

34 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 49 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/tax-preparer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/tax-preparer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 95,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 100,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 4,500 jobs, or +4.7%. Faster than average: 4.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 9,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 38.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 23.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 23.8% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 14.3% |

## What the work involves

- Compute taxes owed or overpaid, using adding machines or personal computers, and complete entries on forms, following tax form instructions and tax tables.
- Use all appropriate adjustments, deductions, and credits to keep clients' taxes to a minimum.
- Furnish taxpayers with sufficient information and advice to ensure correct tax form completion.
- Interview clients to obtain additional information on taxable income and deductible expenses and allowances.
- Prepare or assist in preparing simple to complex tax returns for individuals or small businesses.
- Review financial records, such as income statements and documentation of expenditures to determine forms needed to prepare tax returns.
- Explain federal and state tax laws to individuals and companies.
- Answer questions and provide future tax planning to clients.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Economics and Accounting — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.79 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.38 |
| I — Investigative | 2.38 |
| S — Social | 2.26 |
| R — Realistic | 2.17 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 83.5 |
| ISTJ | 80.7 |
| ISFJ | 78.7 |
| ESFJ | 74.5 |
| ENTJ | 58.6 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ISTJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Tax Examiner and Collector, and Revenue Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tax-examiner-and-collector-and-revenue-agent) — median $62,370
- [Accountant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/accountant) — median $83,680
- [Financial Advisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-advisor) — median $105,070
- [Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bookkeeping-accounting-and-auditing-clerk) — median $50,670
- [Credit Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-counselor) — median $52,230
- [Budget Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/budget-analyst) — median $91,640
- [Credit Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-analyst) — median $83,510
- [Financial Examiner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-examiner) — median $94,160
- [Compensation, Benefit, and Job Analysis Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compensation-benefit-and-job-analysis-specialist) — median $78,210
- [Brokerage Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/brokerage-clerk) — median $65,750

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank 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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/tax-preparer