How do you start a tax preparation business in 2027?

Starting a tax preparation business in 2027

The path is credentials first, software second, marketing third. The expensive mistake new tax preparers keep making is buying a $3,500 professional tax software license and renting a strip-mall storefront before they have passed the IRS Special Enrollment Examination, gotten an EFIN, or figured out which client segment they actually want to serve. Reverse the order. Tax preparation in 2027 is not a software business; it is a credential-and-trust business that happens to require software. The DIY 1040 segment is being commoditized by TurboTax, H&R Block online, IRS Direct File expansion, and emerging AI tax-prep tools. The money is in small-business Schedule C, multi-state, multi-entity, crypto, and audit-representation work where credentials and judgment still command premium fees.

The market in numbers

IBISWorld sizes the US tax preparation services industry at roughly $11 billion annually as of 2024, spread across approximately 110,000 tax preparation firms. Per IRS Filing Season Statistics, roughly 63 million federal individual returns were e-filed by paid preparers in the most recent filing season, out of approximately 165 million total individual returns filed. H&R Block reported FY24 revenue of $3.6 billion per its annual report, the largest single brand in the industry. Independent EAs and small CPA firms charge $200-$600 for a Schedule A/B/D return, $500-$1,500 for a Schedule C, and $1,500-$5,000 for a multi-state S-corp or partnership return with K-1s. The professional associations new operators should know are the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) and the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA), plus the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) for the CPA track. The economics are simple: returns per season, minus software, minus E&O insurance, minus office overhead, minus tax. A solo EA at 200 returns per season at $400 average grosses $80K and can net $50-60K after costs.

Verified 2024 industry figures

The seven moves, in order

1. Get your PTIN before you do anything else. A Preparer Tax Identification Number is required for every paid preparer. The IRS PTIN renewal fee is $19.75. This is the single non-negotiable.
2. Pick your credential track and start studying. The Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP) is the entry tier — 18 hours of CE plus a 6-hour Annual Federal Tax Refresher. The Enrolled Agent (EA) credential requires passing the three-part Special Enrollment Examination and gives you unlimited IRS representation rights. CPA requires state licensure, 150 credit hours, and the Uniform CPA Exam administered by AICPA. EA is the highest leverage path for most independent preparers — federal-only, no state board, and full representation rights.
3. File your EFIN application. An Electronic Filing Identification Number is required to e-file. The application runs through IRS e-Services and takes ~45 days, with fingerprinting required for non-credentialed applicants. Start this in August if you want to be ready for January.
4. LLC or S-corp + E&O insurance + engagement letters. Tax preparation is a contract-and-liability business. The SBA walks through entity selection. Errors-and-omissions insurance is non-negotiable — the average claim runs $5,000-$25,000 and a single missed estimated-payment penalty can wipe out a year of margin. Engagement letters define scope, fees, and document-retention obligations from day one.
5. Pick your professional tax software. Drake Tax, Intuit ProConnect, Intuit Lacerte, TaxAct Professional, Thomson Reuters UltraTax CS, and CCH Axcess dominate the market. Drake runs about $1,800-$2,000 unlimited 1040+business; ProConnect is pay-per-return; Lacerte is the high-end firm tool. Bank-product integration (refund advances, pay-by-refund) is a separate signup if you serve refund-anticipation clients.
6. Local SEO + niche-and-referral + January readiness. Tax prep is search-and-referral, not paid-ads. Clients find you via Google for "[city] enrolled agent" or "[city] small business tax," via the NATP and NAEA member directories, or via a CPA you partner with. Pick a niche — real-estate investors, restaurant owners, doctors, content creators, crypto traders — and own the long-tail keywords.
7. Track returns-per-week and accuracy rate. A tax prep business is just N returns per season at $P average fee at C% accuracy. The week that drops below the target throughput gets investigated within 7 days — workflow, intake forms, e-file rejects, software speed. The accuracy metric is more important than the speed metric: one IRS notice for a missed K-1 line costs more than ten extra returns.

Capital required (year one)

• PTIN + EFIN + state registrations: $200
• Professional tax software (Drake unlimited or ProConnect pay-per-return): $2,000
• E&O insurance ($1M policy): $400-$1,200
• LLC + engagement letter templates + bookkeeping: $1,500
• Office (home office or shared workspace; storefront adds $15K-$30K): $0-$8,000
• Marketing (website, NATP/NAEA listings, local SEO, Google Business Profile): $2,000-$5,000
• Working capital (12-month runway through one tax season): $5,000
• Total starter (home-based solo): ~$11,000-$15,000
• Total starter (storefront): ~$35,000-$50,000
• Total starter (virtual CPA boutique): ~$15,000-$25,000

A solo EA at 200 returns per season at $400 average grosses $80K. A storefront with two preparers and 600 returns can clear $200K-$300K gross. A boutique virtual CPA firm specializing in real-estate-investor or crypto returns can clear $500K-$1M+ at the high end with 80-150 clients on a value-based fee schedule.

Common failures

• Opening a storefront before you have credentials. The marginal client cares whether you can fix an IRS notice, not how nice your lobby looks.
• Competing with TurboTax on price for simple 1040s. The bottom of the market is structurally being eaten by DIY software and IRS Direct File. Compete on judgment, not price.
• Skipping E&O insurance. The first IRS-notice or amended-return claim costs more than every fee you collected that year.
• Hiring seasonal preparers before you have process discipline. A preparer you cannot supervise on accuracy is a liability factory.
• Underbilling the multi-state, multi-entity, crypto, and audit-representation work. These are the segments where credentials matter and price-shoppers do not exist.

Bear case (why this might NOT work in 2027)

Four structural headwinds an operator should price in before signing the office lease:

• TurboTax and H&R Block DIY commoditization of the simple 1040. Intuit's TurboTax and H&R Block's online product have steadily eaten the W-2-only, standard-deduction, single-state filer segment. A taxpayer with a W-2 and a 1099-INT can finish a return on TurboTax for $39-$129 in 30 minutes. The $200-$300 price point that an independent preparer needs to clear simple 1040s in volume is being squeezed from below every year. The simple-return preparer who built a 1,000-return-per-season storefront in 2010 is watching their book attrite to DIY software annually.
• AI tax prep emergence. Intuit Tax Assist and a wave of AI-first tax prep tools are now handling Schedule A, B, and basic D returns conversationally. The same AI commoditization pattern that hit bookkeeping (Pilot, Bench, Botkeeper) is arriving in tax prep. The judgment-heavy work — multi-state apportionment, partnership K-1s, crypto wash sales, R&D credit — is safer for now, but the simple-Schedule-C book is structurally exposed within 3-5 years.
• IRS Direct File expansion. IRS Direct File launched as a free federal direct-filing pilot in 12 states for tax year 2023, expanded to 25 states for tax year 2024, and continues to expand its income-bracket and form-type coverage. Every Direct File expansion permanently removes a slice of the simple-1040 market from paid-preparer addressability. Operators building books on EITC and standard-deduction filers should assume the floor is moving up under them annually.
• January-to-April seasonality cash crunch. Roughly 70-80% of a tax prep firm's revenue arrives between late January and April 15. May through December is a desert unless the firm has built a year-round audit-representation, bookkeeping, advisory, or quarterly-estimated-tax book. Solo operators routinely run out of cash in October-November because they did not reserve enough of the spring revenue. Storefronts with seasonal-employee payroll get hit even harder. The firms that survive year three are the ones that built a year-round revenue base — monthly bookkeeping retainers, quarterly tax planning, S-corp election advisory, IRS notice resolution — not the ones who only filed returns.

None of these are fatal individually. Together, they explain why the firms clearing $150K+ net are not the ones competing for simple 1040s — they're the ones with a year-round small-business bookkeeping-plus-tax book, a niche, and the credentials to handle audit representation and complex multi-state work that DIY software cannot touch.

Adjacent reading (cross-links)

These existing entries cover the adjacent questions a tax preparation operator will hit:

• [How do you start an AirBnB management business in 2027? (q1948)](/knowledge/q1948) — sister recurring-services book where Schedule E investor clients overlap directly with tax prep niche.
• [How do you start a daycare business in 2027? (q1947)](/knowledge/q1947) — same compliance-and-credential operating discipline.
• [How do you start a roofing business in 2027? (q1946)](/knowledge/q1946) — same insurance-and-licensing front-loaded launch model.
• [How do you start an HVAC business in 2027? (q1945)](/knowledge/q1945) — same licensed-trade credential leverage and per-job pricing premium over uncredentialed competitors.
• [How do you start a junk removal business in 2027? (q1944)](/knowledge/q1944) — same per-job pricing-and-throughput tracking discipline.
• [How do you start a moving company in 2027? (q1943)](/knowledge/q1943) — same booking-deposit cash-flow rhythm and seasonality risk.
• [How do you start a tutoring business in 2027? (q1942)](/knowledge/q1942) — same hourly-judgment-fee model and credential-driven premium.
• [How do you start a brewery business in 2027? (q1941)](/knowledge/q1941) — same regulatory-and-license-heavy launch sequence.
• [How do you start a bakery business in 2027? (q1940)](/knowledge/q1940) — same custom-event seasonality and capacity-planning pattern.
• [How do you start a landscaping business in 2027? (q1939)](/knowledge/q1939) — same seasonality cash-crunch and year-round-revenue retention strategy.
• [How do you start a home cleaning service business in 2027? (q1938)](/knowledge/q1938) — same recurring-retainer book that smooths January-to-April revenue concentration.
• [How do you start a digital marketing agency in 2027? (q1932)](/knowledge/q1932) — sister knowledge-services niche-and-retainer pattern.
• [How do you start an e-commerce DTC brand in 2027? (q1931)](/knowledge/q1931) — sister small-business-operator profile that becomes a high-margin Schedule C client.

FAQ

Why should credentials come before software when starting a tax prep business? Tax preparation is a credential-and-trust business that happens to require software, not the other way around. New preparers waste money buying a $3,500 software license and renting a storefront before passing the Special Enrollment Examination or getting an EFIN. Reversing the order means you have representation rights and e-file authorization before you spend on overhead.

What is the difference between the AFSP, EA, and CPA credential tracks? The Annual Filing Season Program is the entry tier, requiring 18 hours of CE plus a 6-hour Annual Federal Tax Refresher. The Enrolled Agent credential requires passing the three-part Special Enrollment Examination and grants unlimited IRS representation rights. CPA requires state licensure, 150 credit hours, and the Uniform CPA Exam, making EA the highest-leverage federal-only path for most independents.

How long does the EFIN application take and what does it involve? The Electronic Filing Identification Number application runs through IRS e-Services and takes about 45 days, with fingerprinting required for non-credentialed applicants. Because of that lead time, you should start in August to be ready for a January filing season. The PTIN, by contrast, is immediate and costs $19.75 to renew.

Which professional tax software options are recommended and at what cost? Drake Tax runs about $1,800-$2,000 for unlimited 1040 plus business returns, while Intuit ProConnect is pay-per-return and Lacerte is the high-end firm tool. TaxAct Professional, Thomson Reuters UltraTax CS, and CCH Axcess round out the market. Bank-product integration for refund advances is a separate signup if you serve those clients.

What does the income math look like for a solo enrolled agent? A solo EA doing 200 returns per season at a $400 average grosses $80K and can net $50-60K after software, E&O insurance, office overhead, and tax. Independent EAs and small CPA firms charge $200-$600 for a Schedule A/B/D return and $500-$1,500 for a Schedule C. The premium work is multi-state S-corps and partnerships at $1,500-$5,000 per return.

Bottom line

Tax preparation in 2027 is not a software business. It is a credential-and-trust business that happens to require software. With the US market at ~$11B across ~110,000 firms, the long-tail is wide open in the niches DIY software cannot touch — small-business Schedule C, multi-state, multi-entity, crypto, audit representation. Preparers who treat it like a service business (credentials, accuracy, response time, niche specialization, year-round client retention) make money. Preparers who treat it like a January-to-April rush job lose $20K and quit by year two.

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