Enrolled Agent Salary in 2027: What Federal Wages and Surveys Say

There isn’t one enrolled agent salary. The federal government counts enrolled agents with all tax preparers, whose median wage was $54,920 in May 2025, while salary websites report EA averages near $72,000. Your own number depends on whether you work for a firm, run a practice or move into a bigger tax role, and each source tells you something different.

How Much Does an Enrolled Agent Make?

Start with the government’s numbers, since you can trace them back to a large wage survey. The BLS publishes them through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, and the table below shows the May 2025 figures for tax preparers.

One catch matters most. The BLS has no enrolled agent category, so it counts enrolled agents inside Tax Preparers. That’s the closest federal match, and it isn’t an EA median. When you see $54,920, read it as “all tax preparers.”

You can use the middle half as a rough frame. A quarter of tax preparers earned $38,910 or less, and a quarter earned $76,300 or more. Where you land in that spread depends on your hours, your clients and your employer. The BLS publishes the same category state by state, so you can check what’s typical where you live.

Salary sites tell a different story, and they’re worth reading with their sources in view.

The sources don’t agree with each other, and you should know that before you plan around any of them. Gleim’s table puts a first-year EA at $71,000. Becker says a starting EA earns around $52,000. Neither is wrong about what it found, but both can’t describe the same people.

Why Are the Federal and Survey Numbers So Different?

Three things are going on.

First, the groups differ. The IRS says anyone can be a paid tax return preparer with a PTIN, and that preparers have differing skills, education and expertise. Federal tax preparer wages blend credentialed pros with part-timers and beginners.

Second, the method differs. Gleim says it gathered data by searching salary sites for “Enrolled Agent” and “Tax Preparer.” That tells you what posted salaries say, not what a random sample of enrolled agents earns.

Third, the publishers have a stake. Becker, Gleim and Surgent all sell exam-review courses, and a higher pay figure helps the pitch. That doesn’t make their numbers false. It does mean you should look for a second source before you rely on one.

Nobody publishes a clean number for practice owners, either. The NAEA’s 2024 member survey summary describes practices but reports no income figures.

What Do Enrolled Agents Earn at Different Career Stages?

Gleim breaks its average down by years of experience:

That’s a steady climb, and you’ll notice it sits well above the federal figures. Becker is more modest on the early years but agrees on the direction. It says EAs who move into senior tax positions or build a solid base of clients often earn well over $100,000.

A new enrolled agent wrote on Reddit’s r/enrolledagent that they were doing well at an accounting firm for real estate investors, and offered one piece of advice about how to earn more: “My recommendation is to find a niche. Generalists never get paid as well as experts.”

Take that as one person’s report, not a pay scale you can count on. They also said they brought a finance degree and securities licenses to the job.

What Moves Enrolled Agent Pay?

Where You Work

Becker says industry matters. Healthcare and private business tend to pay more than nonprofit or government work, though it calls that “not a hard and fast rule.” Gleim adds that bigger employers pay more for the same role, and that some large firms pay entry-level enrolled agents more than small ones pay experienced ones.

Size has trade-offs beyond pay. Gleim notes that large organizations offer benefits such as on-site daycare that smaller firms can’t fit into their budgets, while small ones offer more flexibility and closer access to management.

Representation Work and a Niche

Representation is what separates your credential from a preparer’s. In the NAEA’s 2024 member survey, 45% of current members said they practice IRS representation. That’s work a preparer without the credential generally can’t take on, according to the IRS.

A tax professional at a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm wrote that the work gets them respect, in a reply on the same Reddit thread: “I work for one and get treated like gold because the non-CPAs can’t handle representation work and it falls on the partners.”

Running Your Own Practice

Most of the NAEA’s survey respondents don’t work at a big firm. In that same 2024 survey, 80% of respondents were solo practitioners or owners or employees of small firms. The average current member prepared 446 returns a year, and 77.3% of respondents’ annual returns were individual returns.

Looking ahead, 31% of current members planned to expand their practice volume over five years. Owners set their own fees and carry their own costs, so there’s no single income number to quote.

The Busy Season

Gleim notes that tax preparer work has a busy season, with the heaviest workload from December to mid-April. Plan your year around that stretch, because it shapes both your hours and your income.

Adding a CPA

A practice owner on the enrolled agent vs CPA thread said their business tripled in size after they added the CPA, then added a fair caveat: “Maybe it’s not entirely attributable to the CPA, but it certainly helped.”

Surgent says CPAs earn more than EAs at every career level, but the CPA takes significantly more schooling, time and up-front cost. Our enrolled agent vs CPA comparison covers when the extra license is worth it.

You might also see a higher range quoted for EAs who pass the Tax Court’s separate exam. Becker’s $68,000 to $125,000 comes from a company that sells exam prep, so weigh it that way.

How Does Enrolled Agent Pay Compare With Other Tax Jobs?

The gap between the last two rows and the first is the story. The Accountants and Auditors median is $28,760 above the Tax Preparers median.

That doesn’t mean an EA credential turns into an accountant’s salary. Those are different occupations with different entry requirements. The BLS says accountants and auditors typically need a bachelor’s degree.

Gleim also lists tax manager and tax director roles, with salary-site averages of $128,596 and $185,941. It says the tax manager job is commonly filled by a CPA, though an EA can use the credential to secure a tax specialization. Read those figures as reported averages, not guarantees.

For the accountant side of the picture, see our tax accountant salary guide and tax accountant career guide.

What Does Becoming an Enrolled Agent Cost Against Its Pay?

You can count the fixed costs. The IRS lists $317 per exam part and a $140 enrollment fee. A first-time PTIN costs $18.75. After that, you’ll complete continuing education every three years.

Those fees can change, so confirm them with the IRS before you pay. Our enrolled agent exam guide walks through the parts, scoring and renewal.

Gleim points to a lighter step, too: the IRS’s Annual Filing Season Program. It says that program is far cheaper and quicker than the exam, but it doesn’t carry as many rights as the EA.

Can a Master’s in Taxation Raise Your Pay?

No source we reviewed measures that directly. Nobody publishes a number that proves a master’s raises enrolled agent pay, and we won’t invent one.

What you can see is the federal gap between occupations, and what programs say about the roles they point toward. Cincinnati’s Master of Science in Taxation says that with experience and applicable credentials, graduates may advance into senior tax manager, tax director, practice leader, partner or vice president of tax. It names the EA among credentials graduates may pursue.

DePaul’s MS in Taxation and Analytics lists roles in tax management, compliance, consulting and international taxation, and says it prepares you for credentials like the CPA and EA.

Cost is the other side. Among the programs we track with tuition on record, the median total is $37,650. Taft’s Master of Science in Taxation lists $18,000 in total tuition for 30 credits. Cincinnati’s is $37,800, and DePaul’s is $60,096 for 48 credits.

Compare them side by side in our full list of master’s in taxation programs or the lower-priced programs.

How Can You Estimate Your Own Pay?

Averages won’t settle this for you, so build your own estimate in three passes.

1. Start with the federal floor. Look up the tax preparer median for your state in the BLS wage data.
2. Check real postings. Search job boards for enrolled agent and tax manager openings near you, and write down what employers list.
3. Decide how you’ll work. For a firm job, the posting range is your number. For your own practice, estimate your client count and fees, then subtract costs.

The NAEA survey’s average of 446 returns a year for current members can anchor that last estimate. It’s a reference point, not a target, and your niche and fees will move it.

Is Becoming an Enrolled Agent Worth It?

It can be, and it depends on what you want. The entry bar is low: the IRS’s steps list no degree. The credential gives you unlimited rights before the IRS, and Gleim and Becker both say credentialed pay beats pay for preparers without it.

But you should go in with open eyes. Pay estimates run from the low $50,000s to over $100,000 depending on who you ask, and the federal median for all tax preparers is lower than every salary-site average. The busy season is long.

And the NAEA’s own members rate public awareness of the credential as the most important long-term trend to work on. Members see room to grow in how well clients know the EA title.

If you want a tax-only career, plan to represent clients and are willing to pick a niche, the numbers support giving it a serious try. If you can reach the CPA, price that route too, since practitioners in the threads we read keep raising it.