Pricing
How I price
A factor-based fee: an estimate before I start, and a final fee set from the objective factors in your completed return, not from hours.
My fee is a factor-based fee. I give you an estimate before I start, and I set your final fee when your return is complete, from objective factors in the return itself: the forms and schedules it needs, the accounts and brokerage statements, the states, K-1s, and rental or business activity. It is not based on hours.
What is unusual is where the number comes from. I count what your return actually contains, and those counts set the fee. I do not move it because of what you do for a living, what your refund looks like, or how the week is going.
The estimate is exactly that: an estimate, based on your past returns and what you tell me about this year. The final fee can go up or down if your situation changes. My pricing is moving to a factor-based fee, so your 2026 fee may be higher or lower than in past years.
One reason this works here and would not work everywhere: I do the work myself. There is no staff accountant whose hours have to be recovered, no partner reviewing a file he never opened, no utilization target to hit by March. What your return contains is what sets the fee.
The rest of this page is the specifics: the factors, two example returns, what the estimate says, what is priced separately, and when you pay.
I give you the estimate myself, before any work starts, and I set the final fee when your return is complete.
The three ways this usually gets priced
Hourly. You pay for time, including the twenty minutes someone spent looking up a rule they should have known. The invoice arrives after the work, so you cannot evaluate the price until you have already bought. It also trains you not to call with questions, which is exactly backwards. And it penalizes speed: the faster and better a preparer gets, the less the same return earns.
Value-based. The fee is set by what the firm believes the work is worth to you. A return that saves a great deal of tax costs more than an identical return that saves very little. There is a real argument behind it. The consequence is that two clients with the same forms, the same states, and the same hours of work can pay very different amounts, and the gap gets settled in a conversation rather than against a list of factors.
A number named by feel. This is what many small firms do. An experienced preparer looks at your documents and names a number that feels right. The instinct is usually good. It is not consistent, and the reasoning is never written down anywhere you could check it.
The sequence, start to finish
Initial consultation
We go through your prior-year return and this year's facts. It happens before there is an engagement letter, an invoice, or any obligation on your part.
Estimate before work begins
You get an estimate in writing, along with the factors behind it. Nothing starts until you have seen it and agreed to it. If you decide against it you owe nothing, and the estimate is yours to compare against anyone else's.
Final fee when the return is complete
When the return is finished and its actual contents are confirmed, I set the final fee from the objective factors in the completed return. It can be higher or lower than the estimate. Either way I name the factor that changed before I show you the final number.
What counts as a factor
These are countable things in your return, not how hard the work felt. Typical factors include:
- Forms and schedules: which ones are required, such as Schedule C, Schedule E, Form 8829, Form 1116
- Accounts and brokerage statements, and how many transactions they hold: a dozen stock lots is not the same job as four thousand, and an exchange export from a crypto account is the same problem
- K-1s from partnerships, S corporations, and trusts
- States, and whether any of them are nonresident returns
- Rental and business activity: properties, depreciation assets, Schedule C businesses
- Dependents, and special items such as foreign accounts and foreign tax credits, a backdoor Roth, or a home sale
- Prior-year cleanup: unfiled years, an amendment, or a basis schedule nobody ever built
Two returns, counted against that list
A factor list is easy to nod along to, so here are two returns run against it. Both are hypothetical, and I picked them because the distance between them is typical.
Return A. One hospital W-2, one state of residence, a mortgage interest statement, an HSA, and a brokerage account with eleven sales. Count what is there: one state, Schedule D and Form 8949 and little else, no K-1s, no rental or business activity, and a small number of transactions. That sits at the simple end.
Return B. The same W-2, plus a 1099-NEC for locum shifts worked in two other states, a K-1 from a surgery center LLC, a rental house sold in August, and a depreciation schedule the prior preparer never carried forward. Count again: three states with two of them nonresident, Schedule C and Schedule E and Form 4562 and Form 4797, a K-1, rental activity, and prior-year cleanup that has to happen before the current return can be started at all. Most of the factors move, and none of them is a judgment about the person who owns the return.
The factors do not all weigh the same. A partnership K-1 with basis and at-risk questions attached is a larger event than a second 1099-INT. What you can do without ever speaking to me is count your own: source documents, states, forms, K-1s, transactions, and whether last year's file needs cleanup before anyone can build on it. Those counts are what the estimate starts from.
What is not a factor
Your income. Your job title. The size of your refund. How urgently you need this done, or whether you sound like someone who could absorb a bigger number. A physician with one hospital W-2, an HSA, and a 403(b) has a simpler return than a general contractor with a Schedule C, equipment purchases, and work in three states. The physician usually pays less. Under value-based pricing that outcome is not guaranteed, and that is the main reason I do not use it.
Why the number itself is not printed on this page
If I were reading this page I would have one objection, and it is the right one: if the fee is based on objective factors, why can't I see the numbers? Better to answer that than leave it sitting there.
Most of it you can see, and it is above. The factors are listed in full. The sequence is listed. Your own estimate names which of those factors your return triggered, so you can check the number against the list instead of taking it on faith.
What I do not publish is a price list. A range wide enough to be honest across every return I take would be too wide to tell you anything useful. A narrow one would be wrong for most people who read it, and it would be most wrong for the reader with the K-1 he did not think to mention. The fee is set from facts, and I cannot count facts I have not read. So the estimate arrives after I have read your prior-year return, which takes one conversation.
If that still reads as a promise you cannot check, check it. Get the estimate, then get one somewhere else, and see which of the two can explain where its number came from.
What is actually on the estimate
The estimate is a document, not a figure named over the phone. What it contains:
- The scope: which returns, which tax years, which states, and which entities are covered
- The factors your situation triggered, named one by one rather than summarized
- The estimated fee
- What sits outside that scope, listed rather than implied, each with its own estimate if you want that work too
- A reminder that the final fee is set when the return is complete and can be higher or lower
- No signature required to receive it, and nothing owed if you read it and stop
The estimate arrives before you have signed anything, and if you decide against it, that is the end of it. It is also yours to keep and to shop. I would rather lose an engagement to a better quote than win one because you had nothing to measure mine against.
What is priced separately
The carve-outs, in one place and complete, because a carve-out you learn about in April is not a carve-out, it is a surprise. Everything on this list gets its own estimate before the work starts, and none of it appears for the first time on an invoice. Resolution work and planning are priced the same way preparation is.
- Prior-year cleanup: books that do not tie to anything, or a depreciation or basis schedule that has to be rebuilt from original purchase records
- Unfiled years, priced per year rather than folded into the current return
- Amending a return I did not prepare, which has to be read from the ground up before it can be corrected
- Representation in an examination, an appeal, or a collections matter, which is its own engagement under a Form 2848 power of attorney
- Bookkeeping as an ongoing service, as distinct from the one-time cleanup a return sometimes requires
- Planning work, meaning the decisions that get made before December 31 rather than reported after it
- Not on this list: a math-error or document-matching notice on a return I prepared. Answering that is part of the job
When you pay, and what happens if you stop
When the invoice comes. Nothing is due at the consultation, and nothing is due when the estimate lands. The invoice is step 5 of five in the portal, and step 5 comes after the return has been prepared, reviewed, and signed. If you read the estimate and walk, the whole thing has cost you a conversation.
The return is not held for payment. Your signature on Form 8879 is what authorizes electronic filing. Once it is there I transmit the return and send you the acceptance confirmation. The invoice appears in the portal alongside the finished return. Your filing deadline is not leverage, and I would look hard at any arrangement that made it into leverage.
If you stop partway through. Before the engagement letter is signed there is nothing to settle. After it is signed, if you change your mind, you owe for the work already done, priced from the same factors as the estimate, and you see that number and the reasoning before it goes anywhere. Your documents are yours either way, and you get the file back in whatever state it is in. That last part should be table stakes. It is not always, which is worth knowing before you hand anyone a shoebox.
This is not always the cheapest option
Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. If your return is simple, you will likely pay less here than at a firm that priced you by feel after learning what you do for a living. If it is complex, you may pay more than the low number someone quoted before they found out about the K-1.
Consistency is the part worth paying for, and the reason is mechanical. A price set by feel is a price that can be set against you: it drifts with how full the calendar is, how anxious you sounded, and what the preparer guesses you can bear. A fee set from countable factors cannot do any of that, and I show you the factors. It also lets me tell you which counts drive your fee, so you can see what changes it. Under hourly billing that advice would shrink my own invoice, which is a strange thing to ask a person to volunteer.
And if your return is one W-2 and the standard deduction, consumer software will get it right for a fraction of what I charge, so I will say it now instead of taking the engagement. There is more of this on the fit page, which spends most of its length talking people out of hiring me.
Hunter did my taxes last year. Super professional, straightforward, prompt, and fair. I will never do my own taxes again.
Getting an estimate for your situation
The initial conversation carries no obligation, and it is not a sales call with a scoring model bolted on. Describe your situation through the contact form. If you have last year's return handy, say so — I will open your portal account and you can put it in the vault rather than attaching it to anything. You get an estimate and the factors behind it, and then you decide. The rest of the process, from that first message through signing the finished return, is laid out step by step on how it works.
Try It
What "complexity" actually looks like.
No two returns score the same. Here is roughly where the scale runs, in plain terms — pick one.
A simple return looks like…
- One employer, one W-2
- Standard deduction
- A single state, no side income
Fewer factors to count generally means a lower fee.
A moderate return looks like…
- Moonlighting, locums, or other 1099 income
- A rental property
- Two states filed in one year
A moderate number of factors generally means a moderate fee.
A complex return looks like…
- S-corp or partnership K-1s from a group practice
- Equity compensation — RSUs, ISOs, a liquidity event
- Multiple entities or a foreign account
More factors to count generally means a higher fee, and the same factors are counted for everyone.
The Comparison
Why factors beat a feeling.
Three ways a firm can arrive at your number, and what each one does to you.
Hourly Billing
- Efficiency is penalized — a faster CPA earns less
- The final invoice is a surprise until it arrives
- Clients hesitate to ask questions, worried it adds to the clock
A Number Named by Feel
- Set by an experienced preparer's gut sense, not by countable factors
- Two similar returns can land at slightly different fees
- The reasoning behind the number is rarely made explicit
Factor-Based Fee
- The same objective factors counted for every client
- An estimate before any work begins
- My time is not what sets your fee
Further reading
Questions, answered plainly.
Will my bill match the estimate?
The estimate is based on your past returns. The final fee is set when your return is complete. If something changes, for example another state, a new rental or a missing year, the fee can go up or down.
What actually makes a return complex?
Countable things: the forms and schedules required, the accounts and brokerage statements and how many transactions they hold, K-1s, how many states you file in, rental or business activity, dependents, and whether prior years need cleanup. Same checklist for everyone. None of it asks what you earn or what you can afford.
Why don't you publish a price list?
Because a range honest enough to cover every return I take would be too wide to be useful, and a narrow one would be wrong for exactly the reader who most needs it. The fee is set from facts I have to read first. What I do publish is the factor list itself, and your own estimate names which of those factors your return triggered, so the number can be checked rather than trusted.
When do I actually pay?
Nothing is owed at the consultation or when you receive the estimate. The invoice is step 5 of the five portal steps, so it arrives after the return is prepared and after you have reviewed and signed it. Your signature on Form 8879 authorizes the e-file, I transmit the return and send you the acceptance confirmation, and the invoice appears alongside the finished return rather than gating it.
What if I stop partway through the engagement?
Before the engagement letter is signed, nothing is owed and there is nothing to settle. After it is signed, you owe for the work already completed, priced from the same factors as your estimate, and you see that number and the reasoning behind it before it goes anywhere. Your documents come back to you either way, in whatever state the file is in.
Is this the cheapest option I will find?
Not always, and I will not pretend otherwise. A simple return usually costs less here than at a firm pricing by feel. A genuinely complex one may cost more than a lowball quote from someone who has not looked at your K-1 yet. What I can always do is tell you exactly which factors drove yours.
How is this different from a fee quoted by feel?
Most firms arrive at a figure by feel, which is an experienced guess that varies a little by client and by day. Mine is a factor-based fee: it comes from objective factors in your completed return, and I show you which ones. I give you an estimate before I start, and the final fee is set when the return is complete.
What is priced separately?
Prior-year cleanup, meaning books that do not tie or a basis schedule that has to be rebuilt. Unfiled years, which are priced per year rather than folded into the current return. Amending a return I did not prepare. Representation in an examination, appeal, or collections matter, which is its own engagement under a Form 2848. Ongoing bookkeeping, and planning work done before December 31. All of it gets an estimate before the work starts. Answering a matching notice on a return I prepared is included.
Do I see the estimate before I commit to anything?
Yes. The estimate comes out of the initial conversation and a look at your prior-year return, before any engagement letter is signed and before you owe anything. Nothing begins until you have the estimate in writing and tell me to proceed. If you take that estimate and shop it, that is a reasonable thing to do.
What if my situation changes mid-year?
Tell me when it happens rather than in April. Starting a side business in June, taking a contract in a second state, or selling a rental in August all change what your return contains, and the fee can go up or down to match. The larger point is that the same event reported in August is a planning question, and reported in April it is only a filing problem. One of those still has options attached to it.
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