Employment
1,297,995
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 54121
NAICS 54121 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services - Industry Benchmarks
$76,876/yr average annual pay, with 5,581 SBA loans on record for NAICS 54121.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 1.3M
- Workers employed
- $76,876/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 54121
California leads Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.3M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $76,876/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services
Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.
137,069 establishments employ 1,297,995 workers (9.5/location) at $76,876/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$76,876/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
137,069
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 66,991; establishment count increased by 1,109. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $99.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 9.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Offices of Certified Public Accountants NAICS 541211 | N/A |
| Other Accounting Services NAICS 541219 | N/A |
| Payroll Services NAICS 541214 | N/A |
| Tax Preparation Services NAICS 541213 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 168,466 |
| Texas | 110,048 |
| New York | 109,178 |
| Florida | 79,969 |
| Illinois | 65,514 |
| Pennsylvania | 49,283 |
| Georgia | 47,433 |
| New Jersey | 42,575 |
| Ohio | 38,209 |
| Virginia | 35,883 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
5,581
Total Loan Volume
$2.2B
Avg Loan Size
$390K
Jobs Supported
34,213
Program Breakdown
7(a) 5,135 (92%)
504 446 (8%)
Top SBA Lender
Live Oak Banking Company
411 loans in this industry
New Business Share
17.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 607
2021 793
2022 671
2023 817
2024 1,052
2025 1,422
2026 219
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 54121 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services?
137,069 business establishments. Together they employ 1,297,995 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services?
$76,876/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 9.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services employment?
California leads with 168,466 workers. Texas (110,048) and New York (109,178) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services receive?
Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services businesses received 5,581 SBA loans totaling $2.2 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $390K. These loans supported 34,213 jobs at origination. Most lending (92%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 97% of that same 551-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Engineering Services 1,260,577
- Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors 1,214,761
- Elementary and Secondary Schools 1,176,824
Benchmarking Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 137,069 establishments, 1,297,995 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 5,581 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 54121 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.