Tax Attorney Salary in 2027: What Each Setting Pays

Tax attorney pay depends mostly on where you work. The federal median for all lawyers was $159,670 in May 2025. Large-firm first-year associates had a median base salary of $200,000, and an IRS honors posting listed $89,508 to $172,980. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has no tax attorney line, so Lawyers is the closest match for every federal figure below.

How Much Does a Tax Attorney Make in Each Setting?

Start with the table. It puts each source’s figure beside what that figure actually measures, so you can see why the numbers don’t line up. None of them is a tax-only number, and they come from different years and different kinds of employers.

How Do You Read a Number Like the Federal Median?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median of $159,670 for lawyers in May 2025. Half of lawyers earned more, and half earned less. That’s a middle point, so you shouldn’t read it as a promise for your first job.

The spread tells you more. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $78,360. The highest 10 percent earned more than $351,600. You can see how much the same title can vary once you put that next to the median for all legal occupations, which was $102,500, and for all workers, which was $50,980.

One more limit matters if you plan to run your own practice. The bureau’s wage data leave out self-employed workers and owners and partners of unincorporated businesses. A partner’s income isn’t in the figure. About 11 percent of lawyers are self-employed, so a real share of the field sits outside these numbers. You’ll see lawyer pay for every state in the table below.

What Do Large Firms Pay First-Year Tax Attorneys?

At large firms, tax groups appear to follow the same associate scale as everyone else. A large-firm tax attorney wrote on r/LawSchool: “I make regular Biglaw scale. Tax pay is a bit better than many corporate colleagues going in house. Roles are more restricted though.” So the number you want is the first-year scale.

NALP, an association of legal career professionals, reported in 2025 that the median first-year base salary was $200,000 on January 1, 2025. Firm size changes what you’d earn. Firms of 250 or fewer lawyers had a median of $150,000. Firms of more than 700 lawyers had a median of $215,000.

Where you live matters too. Regional medians ran from $180,000 in the Midwest to $205,000 in the South and West. If you’re open to moving, that’s a spread worth knowing before you apply.

Why $225,000 Isn’t the Whole Story

You’ve probably seen $225,000 in headlines, and it was the figure most often reported. NALP found it in 32 percent of offices, and in 45 percent of offices in firms with 701 or more lawyers. But NALP also says most law offices nationally aren’t paying it yet.

It has become the standard first-year figure in several cities, including Austin, Boston, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and the Washington, DC area. About 87 percent of NALP’s respondents were offices of firms with more than 250 lawyers, so smaller firms are less represented. If you’re aiming for a smaller practice, read the $150,000 figure as your reference point.

What Do Government Tax Attorneys Earn?

Government pay is easier to read because it follows public tables. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the federal median for lawyers at $178,380, the highest of the four settings it lists. For IRS attorneys, the cleanest public number is a USAJOBS posting for the Office of Chief Counsel’s Honors Program.

That 2026 posting listed $89,508 to $172,980 a year. The jobs sat at General Schedule grades 12 and 13, with promotion potential to grade 14. The range includes locality pay, so your exact figure would depend on where you work. The posting is closed, so treat it as a snapshot and not a current offer.

The Office of Personnel Management’s 2026 General Schedule table took effect in January 2026 with a 1 percent increase. The IRS Office of Chief Counsel employs over 1,800 attorneys, so you’d have room to move up. Our tax attorney career guide explains the Honors Program and other government routes.

What About In-House and Estate Planning Pay?

Neither role gets its own federal line. The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes corporate counsels as lawyers who work for one organization and advise executives on matters that include taxes. It files wills and estate planning under general practice lawyers. For both, you’ll use the Lawyers figures above as the closest official match.

The large-firm attorney quoted earlier offers one clue for in-house work: tax pay is a bit better than what many corporate colleagues earn after they move in-house. A tax lawyer with his own firm adds a warning on r/Lawyertalk: “It can be lucrative but it’s also a tough area to practice in.” Treat both as opinions, not pay data.

How Does Tax Attorney Pay Compare With Accountant Pay?

Lawyers earn more at the median, and they study longer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median of $83,680 for accountants and auditors in May 2025, compared with $159,670 for lawyers. You’d need about seven years of full-time study after high school to become a lawyer.

A lawyer who has worked in the tax groups of two large law firms made the hiring point on r/tax: “An LLM is much more valuable for hiring purposes,” and being a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) “would have zero impact on your compensation.” That’s one view from one lawyer. Our CPA vs tax attorney guide and the tax accountant salary page give you the accounting side.

What Does a Tax LL.M. Cost Next to Those Numbers?

You’ll pay for the extra degree up front, so it helps to see the price range. Across the 12 programs on our LLM in Taxation list with a total tuition figure, the median is $37,835. The range runs from $14,400 to $58,824.

Among the 13 that publish a per-credit price, the median is $1,675. That range runs from $600 to $3,638. Here are five programs with a published total, each described by what it offers you.

Prices change, and some schools set different rates by term, so confirm the current figure with the school. No source we cite ties the degree to higher pay by itself. Think of it as an investment you weigh against the jobs you want, and read our guide to what a tax LL.M. is before you apply.

What Is an Entry-Level Tax Attorney Salary?

You’ll start as an associate, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics says newly hired attorneys usually work on teams with more experienced lawyers. What you earn in that first job depends on the employer. A large firm in a major city sits at the top of the NALP figures, and a smaller firm sits lower.

Government sits in a different place. The IRS posting covered grades 12 and 13, and its range includes locality pay. You don’t get a single entry-level number, but you do get a clear way to compare offers: ask which scale each one follows.

How Does Pay Change as Your Career Grows?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes a few ways up. Some lawyers advance to partner, which means partial ownership of the firm. After gaining experience, some go into practice for themselves, and others move to a large organization’s legal department as in-house counsel.

Each move changes how you’re paid. Partners and self-employed lawyers fall outside the bureau’s wage data, and in-house roles sit inside the Lawyers figures. So when you read a median, ask who it leaves out. You’ll often find it leaves out the people with the most upside and the most risk.

How Can You Raise Your Tax Attorney Salary?

The sources point to a few levers, and you control most of them.

• Pick your setting on purpose. Lawyers in federal government jobs had a median of $178,380, and local and state government medians were lower. Firms of more than 700 lawyers reported a $215,000 first-year median.

• Check the firm’s size and city. A first-year median of $150,000 at smaller firms and $215,000 at the largest shows how far the same title can swing.

• Add the credential employers ask for. In the Honors Program posting, the grade 12 and 13 appointments required an LL.M. candidate or graduate.

• Build experience. Tax work rewards depth, and the lawyer with his own firm says experience matters as much as the degree.

• Think long term. New attorneys usually start as associates, and some advance to partner, which means partial ownership of the firm.

What Should You Ask Before You Accept an Offer?

A salary number is only the start, so ask what’s behind it. You’ll compare offers better when you know how each employer pays and what the job asks of you.

• Is the figure base pay or total pay? NALP reports base salary, so ask what bonuses add or don’t.

• How many hours do you expect me to work? The Bureau of Labor Statistics says most lawyers work full time and some work more than 40 hours a week, so a higher salary can come with longer days.

• What will I learn in my first two years? Tax work rewards depth, so a role with real responsibility can be worth more than a slightly higher offer.

• What does the path upward look like? Ask how people move from associate toward partner or senior counsel.

You don’t have to chase the biggest number. The right setting is the one that matches the hours, the clients and the kind of tax work you want to do for the next ten years.