Written by Chris Bendtsen
How Much Does a CPA Cost? What Long Angle Members Paid for Tax Prep
How Much Does a CPA Cost? What Long Angle Members Paid for Tax Prep
The middle Long Angle poll respondent paid a CPA $2,500 to $5,000 for 2025 tax prep; 23% paid $5,000 or more. A third filed returns of 250+ pages.
Chris Bendtsen
Research Findings
Among 367 Long Angle members who answered an October 2026 poll, the middle respondent paid their CPA between $2,500 and $5,000 for 2025 tax preparation and filing, and 23% paid $5,000 or more, close to the 25% who did a year earlier. Another 23% paid under $1,000, a range the poll defined to include tax software. Long Angle's 2025 High-Net-Worth Professional Services Study puts median annual CPA spend at $3,000 and reports that it "increases meaningfully with net worth." Poll respondents are voluntary and not a representative sample of high-net-worth households.
Key Takeaways
- The middle respondent paid $2,500 to $5,000 for 2025 tax preparation; 23% paid $5,000 or more and 9% more than $10,000.
- Bills held steady: no fee range moved more than three points from the same poll a year earlier.
- The median annual CPA spend in the 2025 Professional Services Study was $3,000, the lowest of the financial services it measured.
- A third of respondents to a separate poll filed returns of 250 pages or more, and 15.1% filed 500 or more.
- Half of CPA clients in the study use theirs for filing only, and 42% were considering switching.
2025 High-Net-Worth Professional Services Study
See what HNW households with an average net worth of $5M+ spend on advisors, estate planning, tax, and professional services — benchmarked across 200+ respondents.
Long Angle Member Pulse. Five member polls and the 2025 High-Net-Worth Professional Services Study, read together on what a complex personal tax return costs and what the fee buys.
What Long Angle members paid a CPA for 2025 tax preparation
The middle respondent paid between $2,500 and $5,000 for 2025 tax preparation and filing.
What members paid for 2025 tax preparation
Source: Long Angle Member Pulse poll, "How much did you pay your CPA for annual tax prep/filing?", 367 respondents, single-select. Posted October 27, 2026; read October 30, 2026, while still open. Shares as shown to members, rounded to whole percentages, and may not sum to 100. Respondents are Long Angle members who chose to answer and are not a representative sample of high-net-worth households.
Three in four respondents, 76%, paid under $5,000. Just under one in four, 23%, paid $5,000 or more: 14% between $5,000 and $10,000 and 9% above $10,000.
The lowest bucket is not a CPA fee alone. The poll defined it as under $1,000 and gave TurboTax as the example, so it includes respondents who prepared their own return with software.
The same question, a year apart
Bills held steady between the 2024 and 2025 tax years.
CPA fees, 2024 and 2025 returns
Source: Long Angle Member Pulse polls, "How much did you pay your CPA for annual tax prep/filing?": 350 respondents, posted October 8, 2025 (2024 returns); 367 respondents, posted October 27, 2026 (2025 returns). The 2026 poll split $1,000 - $5,000 into two ranges, combined here. Respondents are Long Angle members who chose to answer and are not a representative sample of high-net-worth households.
No range moved by more than three percentage points. With about 350 respondents to each poll, gaps that small are within what sampling alone produces, so the fair reading is no change. The 2025 poll split the $1,000 to $5,000 range in two, which is what places the middle respondent.
The average cost of tax preparation by a CPA
The poll reports ranges, not an average. The closest central figure comes from Long Angle's 2025 High-Net-Worth Professional Services Study: a median annual spend of $3,000 on CPA and tax services, among 114 respondents surveyed in August and September 2025. The report adds that this spend "increases meaningfully with net worth." It does not print the figure for each wealth level, and neither do the polls.
Source: Long Angle, 2025 High-Net-Worth Professional Services Report, 114 respondents, fielded August - September 2025. Respondents are Long Angle members and are not a representative sample of high-net-worth households.
CPA services were the most widely used financial service in the study and the least expensive. For what respondents paid a wealth manager on the same basis, see wealth management fees for high-net-worth individuals.
How long the returns run
Source: Long Angle Member Pulse poll, "How many pages was your tax return?", 226 respondents, single-select. Posted October 15, 2025; latest vote November 17, 2025; read October 13, 2026. Respondents are Long Angle members who chose to answer and are not a representative sample of high-net-worth households.
A third of respondents, 75 of 226, filed a return of 250 pages or more, and 15.1% filed 500 pages or more.
Source: Long Angle Member Pulse poll, "How much did your tax return cost per page?", 166 respondents, single-select. Posted October 15, 2025; latest vote November 17, 2025; read October 13, 2026. Respondents are Long Angle members who chose to answer and are not a representative sample of high-net-worth households. A different group of respondents from the page-count and total-cost polls.
Six in ten respondents paid under $20 a page. The three polls drew different respondents, so their figures cannot be multiplied together into a typical bill for a return of a given length.
Comments under the 2026 poll named what makes a return long: K-1s from private investments, including real estate funds that bring filings in many states, and Opportunity Zone investments, which consumer tax software does not handle. One member credited a steady CPA relationship and an organized package of documents each year with keeping the bill in check.
What members say they are paying for
Source: Long Angle Member Pulse poll, "Why do you use a CPA/Professional Tax Preparer?", 244 respondents, select all that apply. Posted December 13, 2024; latest vote March 16, 2026; read October 13, 2026. Respondents are Long Angle members who chose to answer and are not a representative sample of high-net-worth households. Shares are the percentage of respondents selecting each answer and sum past 100%.
Time and audit protection both outranked expected tax savings. One respondent in four does not use a professional preparer at all.
Filing, or filing and strategy
The Professional Services Study separates two kinds of engagement. Among respondents who use a CPA, 49% use theirs solely for filing and 47% for filing and tax strategy. Three in four, 74%, were satisfied or extremely satisfied, yet 42% were considering switching and another 4% were thinking of stopping altogether. The two qualities respondents disliked most were being slow to respond and not being strategic or proactive.
Long Angle's reading: a fee comparison only holds between engagements that do the same work. A $3,000 bill for filing alone and a $3,000 bill that includes planning are different purchases, and the study's most common complaint, that CPAs are not strategic or proactive, suggests many clients expected the second. For how to judge a CPA beyond price, see choosing a high-net-worth accountant.
Methodology and limitations
- Polls. Five Long Angle Member Pulse polls posted to members on the community: "How much did you pay your CPA for annual tax prep/filing?" asked twice, with 367 respondents (single-select, posted October 27, 2026, fees for 2025 returns, read October 30, 2026 while still open) and 350 respondents (posted October 8, 2025, fees for 2024 returns); "How many pages was your tax return?" (226, single-select, posted October 15, 2025); "How much did your tax return cost per page?" (166, single-select, posted October 15, 2025); and "Why do you use a CPA/Professional Tax Preparer?" (244, select all that apply, posted December 13, 2024). Answer options are reproduced as asked.
- Study. 2025 High-Net-Worth Professional Services Report, 114 respondents, fielded August to September 2025.
- Who answered. Participation was voluntary. Respondents are Long Angle members and are not a representative sample of high-net-worth households.
- Separate respondents. Each poll drew its own respondents. Figures are not combined across polls.
- Earlier polls. The 2025-returns poll repeats the 2024-returns poll with the same outer ranges, so those four ranges are compared directly. Polls in earlier years used different ranges and are not shown as a trend. A 2026 repeat of the per-page poll is still collecting responses and added a "don't know" option, so the per-page figures shown are from the October 2025 poll.
- Rounding. Shares are of all respondents to each poll, including "not sure" and "not filing in the US". The 2026 poll is shown as members see it, in whole percentages; earlier polls are rounded to one decimal place.
Final Thoughts
Three questions sort a CPA bill faster than any average. How long is the return, and how much of that length is partnership K-1s and state filings? Is the engagement filing only, or filing and strategy, and does the invoice say which? And is the fee quoted flat, hourly or by the page? The respondents here paid anywhere from under $1,000 to more than $10,000, and the figures alone do not say which of those bills was fair. The answers to those three questions do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a CPA cost for a personal tax return?
Among 367 Long Angle members who answered an October 2026 poll, 24% paid $1,000 to $2,500 for 2025 tax preparation and filing, 29% paid $2,500 to $5,000, 14% paid $5,000 to $10,000 and 9% paid more than $10,000. Respondents are voluntary and not a representative sample.
What is the average cost of tax preparation by a CPA?
Long Angle's 2025 High-Net-Worth Professional Services Study found a median annual spend of $3,000 on CPA and tax services, among 114 respondents. The report says the figure increases meaningfully with net worth.
Do high-net-worth households pay more for tax preparation?
The 2025 Professional Services Study reports that median CPA spend "increases meaningfully with net worth," though it does not publish the figure for each wealth level. Return length is one visible difference: a third of poll respondents filed returns of 250 pages or more.
How many pages is a high-net-worth tax return?
Among 226 Long Angle poll respondents, 35.8% filed returns of 100 to 249 pages, 18.1% filed 250 to 499 pages, and 15.1% filed 500 pages or more.
Why do people with complex finances use a CPA?
Time came first. Among 244 Long Angle poll respondents, 51.2% cited the value of their time, 41.0% peace of mind and audit protection, and 28.7% the expectation of savings they would not find themselves.
Are high-net-worth clients satisfied with their CPA?
Mostly, but not loyal. In the 2025 Professional Services Study, 74% of CPA clients were satisfied or extremely satisfied, while 42% were considering switching and 4% were thinking of stopping.
The CPA referral worth taking comes from someone who has filed with them.
Long Angle is a vetted community of high-net-worth founders, executives and investors. Members ask "who have you used" and "would you do it again" about CPAs and tax strategists, under their real names, with no vendors posting.
Research
