Tax Preparers in Missouri
May 2025 wages · tax year 2026
You keep
$50,610
after federal, FICA and Missouri tax
Tax takes
$12,170
19.4% of the whole
Worth, in national money
$55,154
Missouri costs less than average
On that salary you would be around the 25th percentile for this work in Missouri — roughly, since only five points along the band are published.
One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.
Median here
$62,780
Kept after tax
$50,610
Worth in national money
$55,154
State rank
5
of 48 states
What this pays, and what it is worth
- Pay for tax preparers is strong here. Missouri's middle earner gets $62,780, putting the state 5 of 48 — about 14.31% ahead of the national figure.
- Ordinary, locally speaking. Tax preparers ranks 179 among 488 occupations Missouri publishes pay for.
- Missouri is cheaper than average, and that shows up here. From $62,780 the take-home is $50,610; adjusted for what things actually cost, it goes as far as $55,154 would nationally. The average comes to $72,120, above the middle, thanks to the top of the range.
- For tax preparers, Missouri sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $62,780, ranking 5 of 48 and running about 14.31% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
- Position 179 of 488 in Missouri places tax preparers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
- Post-tax income for tax preparers in Missouri, on $62,780, is $50,610 — equivalent to $55,154 once regional price parity is applied. ⚠️ The adjustment uses a statewide index that describes no particular address; within-state price variation, concentrated in housing, routinely exceeds the difference between two states. At $72,120 the mean overshoots the median — the usual right-skewed shape.
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Pay band: Tax Preparers
The state median for this job
| Lowest tenth earn under | $31,400 |
|---|---|
| Half earn under | $62,780 |
| Top tenth earn over | $124,300 |
| This salary | $62,780 |
Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.
The same pay, somewhere else
The state median for this job
| Take-home in Missouri | $50,610 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $52,624 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,000 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What you would need there
The state median for this job
| To match take-home only | $60,274 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$1,210 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 92 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Sources and assumptions
- Half the people doing this work in Missouri earn less than $62,780. The published range is $31,400 up to $124,300, so an individual figure can sit a long way from the middle in either direction.
- In Missouri the take-home figure of $50,610, from $62,780, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 179 of 488 occupations here.
- Two cautions on $55,154, the adjusted value of that $62,780 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Missouri. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 179 of 488 locally.
- Reported values are medians; for tax preparers in Missouri the tenth-to-ninetieth percentile band is $31,400 to $124,300. Neither the median nor the band is an offer rate, and neither accounts for hours, shift differentials or overtime.
- Take-home for Missouri is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $50,610 from $62,780. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 179 of 488 locally.
- This $55,154 adjusted figure, worked from $62,780, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 179 of 488 in the state. The occupation ranks 179 of 488 locally.
Questions people ask
Is this the average pay for the job?
No — it is the middle. Half of these workers earn more and half earn less. The average is $72,120, pulled upward by the top of the range, which is why the middle is the fairer number to plan against.
Why is the pay range for this job so wide?
Because one job title covers very different work. The bottom tenth here earn $31,400 and the top tenth $124,300 — experience, employer and specialism separate them, and a single figure hides all three.
What does this pay actually buy where I live?
A smaller wage in a cheaper place is not automatically less. Adjusted for local prices, this is worth $55,154.
Where does the difference between the wage and my paycheck go?
Three of them are federal and one is not. After income tax, Social Security, Medicare and Missouri's own levy, $50,610 remains.
Why is this job missing from some states?
A blank is a suppression, not a zero. 48 states have a published figure for this work; the others had too few responses to release one.
How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?
The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Missouri is $72,120. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.
What drives the percentile dispersion in this occupation?
Dispersion between the tenth percentile ($31,400) and the ninetieth ($124,300) exceeds the family median dispersion. SOC codes aggregate roles differing in seniority, industry and specialisation, and BLS does not disaggregate below the detailed occupation level, so within-title variance is not separable from the published series.
What is this occupation's price-adjusted compensation in this state?
Missouri's regional price parity is at or below the national average, so nominal wages understate purchasing power. Take-home deflated by the state price level is $55,154 in national-average terms. The adjustment uses an all-items index and does not isolate housing.
What accounts for the gap between gross wage and take-home here?
Take-home of $50,610 reflects federal income tax, OASDI, Medicare and Missouri income tax for a single filer with no adjustments. The state layer is levied in addition to the federal one; only its rate and base differ between states.
Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?
BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 48 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.