Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How U.S. CPA firms, accounting firms and tax preparers use video and market themselves, and the evidence behind it: our own read of a random sample of accounting and tax office homepages mapped in OpenStreetMap; how many Americans pay someone to do their taxes and how they find them; how many accountants and tax preparers there are and what they earn; how concentrated the CPA market is and how private equity is buying in; how the CPA pipeline shrank and is changing; what firms say about advisory work and client communication; the advertising and client-data rules; and where six popular numbers came from.
12.2% of 246 U.S. accounting, CPA and tax office homepages we read on November 2, 2026 showed a video player, the lowest of the nine business types we have measured the same way; more played a muted background loop (5.7%) than embedded a YouTube player (3.7%) (our measurement). (Mark Studios)See details
Only 0.8% labelled a meet-the-team or welcome video, though 26.0% introduced their team and 47.2% pointed clients to a portal. (Mark Studios)See details
Tax professionals e-filed 51.9% of the individual returns the IRS received by April 17, 2026 (our calculation), and GAO puts paid-preparer use at 57 percent of taxpayers in fiscal 2024. (IRS; GAO)See details
886,338 people held an IRS preparer number for 2026, but only 209,076, or 23.6%, were CPAs (our calculation). (IRS; our calculation)See details
The four largest firms took 47.7% of U.S. CPA office receipts in 2022, up from 42.8% in 2017, and auditing was 49.8% of all CPA office receipts. (U.S. Census Bureau)See details
Accounting degrees fell to 55,152 in 2023-24, 30.9% below the 2015-16 peak (our calculation), but undergraduate accounting enrollment grew 7.3% in fall 2025. (AICPA; our calculation)See details
Only 3% of taxpayers who use a preparer found them through social media, and 17% of businesses in a TaxDome survey found their accountant through online search. (TaxSlayer Pro; TaxDome)See details
The "75% of CPAs will retire" line comes from a 2015 AICPA estimate that 75% of its members would be eligible to retire by 2020; BLS counted 331 thousand employed accountants and auditors aged 55 to 64 in 2025. (AICPA and NASBA; BLS)See details
How many accounting firm websites show video?
About one in eight. On November 2, 2026 we drew a random sample of 400 from the 1,347 U.S. accounting, CPA, bookkeeping and tax preparation office websites mapped in OpenStreetMap, the open map database, each counted once however many offices it serves. Of the 246 homepages we could read, 12.2% showed a video player (our measurement). Forty asked crawlers to stay away in robots.txt and were not visited, 14 showed a bot wall, 65 failed to load and 35 were parked or not accounting sites. That is the lowest share of the nine business types we have measured with the same method: 12.2% against 37.6% for roofers, 35.0% for dental practices, 31.2% for physical therapy and chiropractic clinics, 24.1% for veterinary practices, 22.4% for therapy practices, 20.2% for optometry and 19.3% for audiology (our comparison).
Where accounting sites do show video, it is often decoration. 5.7% of homepages played a muted background loop, more than the 3.7% that embedded a YouTube player. Of the 30 pages with video, 53.3% used only self-hosted files. Only 0.8%, two homepages, labelled a video as a meet-the-team, welcome or about-the-firm video, though 26.0% introduced or linked to their team. 9.3% linked to a YouTube channel, while 41.5% linked to Facebook, 11.3 times as often as they embedded a YouTube player (our calculation). Only 49.6% linked to any social profile.
On the homepage (246 readable U.S. accounting and tax office sites, Nov 2, 2026)
The homepages sell services more than people. 44.7% named a CPA and 11.8% an enrolled agent; 6.5% mentioned QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification. 45.5% mentioned payroll, the same share mentioned bookkeeping (45.5%), 43.1% tax planning and 42.7% advisory, outsourced CFO or client accounting services, while 23.2% advertised help with IRS problems. 30.9% mentioned a tax deadline, extension or tax season, 11.8% linked to the IRS refund tracker or another IRS tool and 58.1% offered resources, calculators or a newsletter. 6.9% offered service in Spanish, 15.9% showed membership of an accounting network or society, and 2.8% belonged to a chain or national firm. 24.0% offered online booking but no form on the homepage.
How we counted: the sample is every U.S. office tagged as an accountant or tax adviser in OpenStreetMap with a website, one row per website (H&R Block's 624 mapped offices are one row), read once in a headless browser from one U.S. connection with a desktop window. A hand check of 30 random sites agreed with the automatic video count on 96.7% of them; the one miss was a thumbnail linking to video elsewhere, so the video share is a floor. Forty robots.txt refusals, most from one shared website template, are not in the base. The full method, code and the per-site file (homepages.csv) are published.
How many Americans pay someone to do their taxes?
Just over half. In the 2026 filing season, through April 17, tax professionals e-filed 72,821,000 individual returns, against 64,796,000 self-prepared e-filed returns (IRS). Professionals filed 51.9% of all 140,222,000 individual returns the IRS had received by then (our calculation). Self-filing grew faster than paid preparation that season: up 1.7% against 0.4% a year earlier. Over the whole of calendar 2025, the IRS counted 87,855,000 e-filed returns from tax professionals and 67,056,000 self-prepared (IRS). In IRS fiscal year 2025, practitioners e-filed 86,696,461 of 162,754,810 individual returns (IRS Data Book), up from 85,391,233 in fiscal 2024 (IRS Data Book).
GAO, citing IRS data, put it at over 85 million taxpayers, or 57 percent, using a paid preparer in fiscal 2024 (GAO). Surveys land in the same range: 56% of Americans told Pew in 2013 that someone else prepares their taxes (Pew Research Center), and 37% of 2,000 taxpayers polled for TaxSlayer Pro in September 2025, a company that sells software to preparers, said they use a professional preparer (TaxSlayer Pro). The surveys and the IRS count different things: a household can use a preparer one year and file alone the next.
The free government options stayed small
IRS Free File handled 3,187,642 returns in fiscal 2025 (IRS Data Book), and volunteer VITA and TCE sites prepared 2,915,907 (IRS Data Book). Direct File, the IRS's own filing tool, took 308,628 returns in fiscal 2025, its second and last season (IRS Data Book). Only 751,000 taxpayers registered for it in 2025, against an IRS estimate of 32 million eligible, and 59 percent of them never filed through it (TIGTA). Treasury told Congress in October 2025 that the IRS would suspend it (TIGTA).
How do clients find an accountant?
Mostly through people they know. In the September 2025 TaxSlayer Pro poll, 49% of taxpayers who use a preparer were referred by someone they know, 19% already knew the preparer, and only 3% found one through social media (TaxSlayer Pro). 69% of those who prefer a preparer said preparers know more than they do (TaxSlayer Pro). Among self-employed respondents, 48% had turned to a preparer for business guidance (TaxSlayer Pro). We found no independent study of how often a client finds an accountant through a search engine or a video.
Trust in the profession has slipped. In Gallup's December 2025 poll, 35% of U.S. adults rated accountants' honesty and ethics high or very high, down from 41% in 2022 and 42% in 2018 (Gallup); 54% rated them average (Gallup). Gallup counted accountants among eight professions statistically close to their lowest rating (Gallup).
Small business owners have a standing reason to call. In NFIB's 2024 survey, federal taxes on business income ranked 4th of 75 small-business problems (NFIB), and Twenty-two percent of owners called state taxes on business income critical (NFIB).
How many accountants and tax preparers are there, and what do they earn?
U.S. employers had 1,449,500 wage and salary accountants and auditors in May 2025, with a median annual wage of $83,680 (BLS OEWS). They had 76,480 tax preparers, median $54,920, and 1,373,680 bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks, median $50,670 (BLS OEWS). Counting the self-employed, BLS put accountants and auditors at 1,595.2 thousand in 2025 (BLS Employment Projections). These are BLS wage-and-salary counts from its model-based OEWS method; BLS warns against comparing them year to year.
Most accountants do not work at accounting firms. In May 2025 the accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll industry (NAICS 5412) employed 330,500 of the accountants and auditors, paying them a median $81,490 (BLS OEWS). It employed 72,250 of the 76,480 tax preparers (BLS OEWS) and 98,500 clerks (BLS OEWS), and 1,091,370 wage and salary workers in all (BLS OEWS).
BLS projects accountant and auditor jobs to grow faster than the 3.5% average from 2025 to 2035, and bookkeeping clerk jobs to shrink while still opening 144,100 positions a year as people leave. 17.6 percent of tax preparers were self-employed in 2025 (BLS Employment Projections).
In Florida, employers had 91,000 accountants and auditors in May 2025, median $79,250 (BLS OEWS), and 88,670 bookkeeping clerks (BLS OEWS). Florida tax preparers earned a median $49,020 (BLS OEWS); BLS suppresses their Florida job count.
How many people prepare returns for pay?
Far more than BLS's wage count, because the IRS counts everyone who prepares returns for pay. 886,338 people held a current preparer tax identification number (PTIN) for 2026 as of September 1, 2026 (IRS), up from 850,152 for 2025 (IRS) and 809,904 for 2024 (IRS), a rise of 9.4% in two years (our calculation). CPAs held 209,076 of them (IRS), 23.6% (our calculation), barely changed from 207,531 in 2024 (IRS). Enrolled agents grew to 71,966 (IRS), up 23.4% from 58,302 in 2024 (our calculation), and attorneys held 26,256 (IRS). 72,049 preparers completed the IRS's voluntary Annual Filing Season Program for 2026 (IRS), against 78,397 for 2024 (IRS).
Most paid preparers hold no credential. GAO counted 295,751 credentialed practitioners among roughly 870,000 PTIN holders in December 2025 (GAO). In tax year 2022, non-credentialed preparers did 82 percent of the paid-prepared returns claiming the earned income tax credit (National Taxpayer Advocate). The D.C. Circuit's ruling of Feb. 11, 2014 in Loving v. IRS left the IRS without power to license them, as the IRS itself notes (IRS). An older GAO analysis of 2006-2009 audit data estimated errors on 60 percent of paid-preparer returns, against 50 percent of self-prepared ones (GAO).
How big is the accounting and tax preparation industry?
U.S. accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll employers (NAICS 5412) took in $246.7 billion in revenue in 2024 (Census AIES); offices of CPAs alone took $144.4 billion (Census AIES). The 2022 Economic Census counted $208.8 billion for the whole industry (Census Economic Census), $144.7 billion for CPA offices (Census Economic Census) and $7.3 billion for tax preparation services (Census Economic Census).
BLS counted an annual average of 186,990 private establishments in the industry in 2025, employing 1,129,093 people at average pay of $103,559 (BLS QCEW). Offices of CPAs were 62,904 of those establishments, with 526,519 jobs paying an average $121,860 (BLS QCEW). Tax preparation services had 37,505 establishments and 99,127 jobs, paying an average $58,169 (BLS QCEW). Since 2019, when CPA offices had 55,065 establishments and 491,189 jobs (BLS QCEW), establishments rose 14.2% and jobs 7.2% (our calculation); the whole industry grew from 1,029,936 jobs (BLS QCEW). Employment swells in tax season: the Census mid-March count for 2023 was 1,297,995 paid employees across 137,069 establishments (Census CBP).
Most CPA offices are small
35,650 of the 55,052 CPA offices with paid staff in 2023 had fewer than five employees (Census CBP), 64.8% of them (our calculation). Those offices had 604,209 employees in mid-March and paid $60.8 billion in annual payroll (Census CBP). 19,876 of the 28,762 tax preparation offices with staff were that small too (Census CBP). Another 34,009 CPA practices and 106,403 tax preparation businesses had no employees at all in 2024 (Census Nonemployer Statistics), part of 405,112 one-person accounting, tax, bookkeeping and payroll businesses with $14.5 billion in receipts (Census Nonemployer Statistics), up from 384,691 in 2019 (Census Nonemployer Statistics).
In Florida, BLS counted 17,362 industry establishments and 88,352 jobs in 2025, including 5,459 CPA offices with 34,981 jobs (BLS QCEW). Census counted 4,664 Florida CPA offices with paid staff and 37,829 employees in 2023 (Census CBP), and 39,040 Florida accounting and tax businesses without employees in 2024 (Census Nonemployer Statistics).
How concentrated is the CPA market, and what do firms sell?
Very concentrated at the top. The four largest firms took 47.7% of all receipts of U.S. offices of CPAs in 2022, up from 42.8% in 2017 (Census Economic Census). The eight largest took 53.4% and the 50 largest 65.7% (Census Economic Census). Tax preparation is less concentrated: the four largest firms took 27.2% of its receipts (Census Economic Census).
Auditing, not advice, is the biggest product line. In 2022, financial auditing was 49.8% of CPA office receipts and tax preparation and representation 23.1% (Census Economic Census). General accounting was 9.4%, bookkeeping and compilation 4.3%, financial management consulting 2.4%, strategic consulting 2.1% and business tax planning 1.8% (Census Economic Census). At tax preparation firms, individual and small-business returns made up 71.7% of receipts (Census Economic Census).
The industry spends little on advertising. Employers in NAICS 5412 bought $1.74 billion of advertising and promotional services in 2024 (Census AIES), 0.71% of their revenue (our calculation), down from $1.79 billion in 2023 (Census AIES). Intuit alone spent about $2.2 billion on advertising in fiscal 2026 (Intuit 10-K), 7.9 times H&R Block's $277.8 million (H&R Block 10-K) (our calculation).
Private equity and the largest firms
Private equity arrived in U.S. accounting in 2021, when EisnerAmper took money from TowerBrook, according to INSIDE Public Accounting (INSIDE Public Accounting). Grant Thornton followed in March 2024, reporting $2.4 billion of revenue when New Mountain Capital invested (Grant Thornton). Baker Tilly called its February 2024 deal with Hellman & Friedman the largest advisory CPA private equity transaction to date (Baker Tilly), then combined with Moss Adams in 2025 to form, in its words, the sixth largest advisory CPA firm in the U.S. (Baker Tilly). Citrin Cooperman, with 2,800 people, moved from New Mountain to Blackstone in January 2025 (Blackstone). Aprio had over 2,100 people when Charlesbank invested in 2024 (Aprio), after 28 combinations since 2016 (Aprio).
The largest public deal came in 2026. CBIZ, which paid about $1,997.8 million for Marcum in November 2024 (CBIZ 10-K) and grew revenue to $2,758.0 million in 2025 (CBIZ 10-K), agreed in July 2026 to be bought by the New Mountain-backed Grant Thornton Advisors for $55.00 a share in cash (CBIZ), with $5.2 billion of committed financing (CBIZ). CBIZ's audits are done by four licensed CPA firms under administrative service agreements (CBIZ 10-K), which keeps the audit work in CPA-owned firms.
Global network revenue covers all services and all countries; it is not U.S. accounting revenue. KPMG had 276,030 people worldwide at September 30, 2025 (KPMG).
The tax-prep chains and the software they compete with
H&R Block prepared 11.3 million U.S. assisted returns in fiscal 2026 (H&R Block 10-K), against 11.4 million in fiscal 2024 (H&R Block 10-K). It ran 6,802 company-owned offices in March 2026, up from 6,643 in 2024, while franchise offices fell (H&R Block 10-K). Its marketing and advertising costs have held near $280 million a year: 286.3 million dollars in fiscal 2023 (H&R Block 10-K). At its fiscal 2026 peak it employed about 73,400 people including seasonal staff (H&R Block 10-K).
Intuit's TurboTax revenue reached $5,296 million in fiscal 2026 (Intuit 10-K). TurboTax Live, where a tax expert helps, made up 53% of it (Intuit 10-K), while TurboTax units fell 2% to 39.0 million (Intuit 10-K). Intuit's ProTax software for accounting firms brought in $647 million (Intuit 10-K), and Thomson Reuters' unit selling to firms outside the seven largest grew 12% to $1,302 million in 2025 (Thomson Reuters).
Is the CPA pipeline shrinking?
It shrank for a decade and has started to turn. U.S. colleges awarded 55,152 bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting in 2023-24, down 6.6% in a year (AICPA), against a peak of 79,854 in 2015-16 (AICPA): 30.9% fewer (our calculation). Bachelor's degrees fell to 40,817 from a 2011-12 peak of 57,483 (AICPA), and master's degrees in accounting or taxation fell about 15% in one year to 14,335 (AICPA). These counts come from the AICPA's 2025 Trends report.
Enrollment is recovering. Total U.S. postsecondary accounting enrollment was 313,397 in fall 2025, up from 293,759 a year earlier (AICPA, from National Student Clearinghouse data). Undergraduate accounting enrollment grew 7.3% that fall, against 1.2% across all majors (AICPA), and One in eight undergraduate business students majored in accounting (AICPA). In spring 2023 it had bottomed at 225,915 (AICPA).
CPA exam candidates
New CPA exam candidates fell from 49,597 in 2010 to 30,251 in 2022 (AICPA). Candidates rushed in ahead of the January 2024 exam change, 42,626 new ones in 2023 (AICPA), then dropped to 28,082 in 2024 by the AICPA's count (AICPA) or 27,994 by NASBA's (NASBA); the two bodies' counts differ slightly, and we show both. That is 43.4% below 2010 (our calculation, AICPA series). Unique candidates fell to 74,175 in 2024 from a peak of 103,609 in 2010 (AICPA). 16,448 new candidates entered in the first half of 2025 (AICPA), and the AICPA says 2025 first-time candidates reached their highest level since 2018, leaving aside the 2023 spike (AICPA).
The new exam is hard in places. 2025 cumulative pass rates ran from 41.94% for Business Analysis and Reporting and 42.12% for Financial Accounting and Reporting to 77.65% for Tax Compliance and Planning (AICPA). Candidates sat for 128,000 core sections in 2024 (Journal of Accountancy). NASBA counted 650,667 actively licensed CPAs in August 2026 (NASBA), against 672,587 in September 2023 (NASBA); the two counts leave out different states, so read the drop as approximate.
The 150-hour rule is being rewritten
For decades nearly every state required 150 college credit hours for a CPA license. Ohio became the first state to enact an alternative route in January 2025, with the bachelor's-plus-two-years path in force from Jan. 1, 2026 (Ohio Society of CPAs). In May 2025 the AICPA and NASBA added that path to the model Uniform Accountancy Act, when 14 states had made such changes (AICPA). The New Jersey Society of CPAs counted 24 states with legislation by December 2025 (New Jersey Society of CPAs), and the Minnesota Society of CPAs' tracker now counts more than 40 jurisdictions (Minnesota Society of CPAs). California signed its bill on Oct. 3, 2025 and New York on Nov. 21, 2025 (Minnesota Society of CPAs). Florida's 2026 session ended without passing its bill, so Florida still requires 150 hours (Minnesota Society of CPAs).
Students look for careers on YouTube
In the Center for Audit Quality's 2024 survey of 3,487 high school and college students (CAQ), YouTube was the top source of career information, and 52% of students turned to video content for career insights (CAQ). The CAQ's own Accounting+ recruiting campaign says it reached students more than 2 billion times in 2024 through paid and social media (CAQ). Finding staff is the problem firms name most: in the AICPA's 2024 Top Issues survey of 667 firms, finding qualified staff was the top issue for every size of firm except sole practitioners (AICPA).
What do accounting firms say about advisory work, technology and video?
Most firm surveys come from companies that sell software to firms; we name each one. In Thomson Reuters' 2026 survey of 600 tax, audit and accounting professionals, 74% said their clients strongly want advice beyond tax preparation (Thomson Reuters Institute), yet they put advisory margins at 20% to 24%, against 28% for individual returns (Thomson Reuters Institute). 78% said their firm still bills mainly by the hour (Thomson Reuters Institute), and 40% said talent shortages constrain their firm (Thomson Reuters Institute). In Intuit's April 2025 survey, 79% of U.S. accounting professionals expected advisory work to grow (Intuit). The CPA.com and AICPA 2024 benchmark survey of more than 200 firms found median client advisory services growth of 17% in 2023 (CPA.com and AICPA). Census data puts this in proportion: consulting lines were under 5% of CPA office receipts in 2022 (see above).
Client communication, portals and video calls
Accountants in a June 2024 Canopy and CPA Practice Advisor survey of 240 professionals spent 9.3 hours a week on client communication (Canopy and CPA Practice Advisor). Email took 35.4% of it and in-person meetings 16.8%, and 30% expected to rely more on video conferencing (Canopy and CPA Practice Advisor). 64% said their firm uses a client portal (Canopy and CPA Practice Advisor). Canopy sells practice-management software with a client portal. In Mango and Woodard's 2025 survey, 69% of firms reported delays getting documents from clients (Mango Practice Management), the kind of problem portal how-to videos are made for. In Karbon's October 2025 survey of 593 professionals (Karbon), 29% used AI to produce marketing content (Karbon).
Large firms have used social media for years. A 2018 peer-reviewed study of major accounting firms found LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook each used by over 90 percent of them (Journal of Accounting and Finance). We found no survey that measures how many U.S. accounting firms publish video, which is why we counted it ourselves (first section).
Does explaining tax and money on video work?
The best evidence is about financial literacy, not accounting firms. In a 2014 randomized online experiment by Lusardi and co-authors that tested four formats on U.S. adults, a video narrative raised financial literacy scores more than the same content written down (NBER). Explanation alone is not always enough: in Chetty and Saez's 2007 tax-season experiment with 43,000 earned income tax credit clients at H&R Block, a preparer's short explanation of the credit had no significant average effect on next year's earnings (NBER), though results varied across the 1,461 preparers who gave it (NBER).
What are the advertising rules for CPA firms and tax preparers?
Four sets of rules apply to a firm's videos and ads: Treasury's Circular 230 for anyone practicing before the IRS, the tax code's limits on using client return data, the AICPA Code and state board rules for CPAs, and the FTC Act.
Circular 230. Section 10.30 bars false, misleading or deceptive statements in any public communication or solicitation (eCFR). Practitioners must keep copies of direct-mail and e-commerce ads for 36 months (eCFR), and anyone advertising on radio and television must keep a recording of the broadcast (eCFR). Published fee schedules bind for at least 30 calendar days (eCFR). Section 10.27 bars most contingent fees (eCFR), including a fee based on a percentage of the refund (eCFR). Section 10.51 lists 18 kinds of sanctionable conduct (eCFR); item (5) is solicitation that breaks section 10.30 (eCFR).
Client return data in marketing. A preparer who uses or discloses a client's return information for anything but preparing the return faces a criminal fine of up to $1,000 under IRC section 7216 (LII), or, since 2019, $100,000 when tied to identity theft (LII), and a civil penalty of $250 per disclosure under section 6713 (LII). The regulations require the client's prior written consent (eCFR); a consent that names no end date lasts one year (eCFR), and paper consent forms need at least 12-point type (IRS Rev. Proc. 2013-14). A firm may publish anonymous statistics from client returns only if they come from at least ten returns, and never with dollar amounts of refunds, credits or deductions in marketing, even averaged (eCFR). A "we got our clients $X back" video needs each client's consent. Return data sent when a client clicks a preparer's hyperlink counts as a disclosure (eCFR).
IRS e-file advertising. Publication 3112 holds every authorized e-file provider to Circular 230 section 10.30 (IRS). Any faster refund claim must match official IRS wording (IRS), and providers must keep broadcast and internet ads until the end of the calendar year following their last use, a shorter period than Circular 230's (IRS). Serious infractions can bring a suspension of two years from e-file (IRS).
CPA rules. AICPA rule 1.600.001 bars false, misleading or deceptive advertising by members in public practice (AICPA Code), and interpretation 1.600.010 treats promotion that creates unjustified expectations of results as misleading (AICPA Code). Naming a client in a case study or testimonial needs the client's specific consent (AICPA Code), preferably in writing (AICPA Code). The AICPA Code says nothing specific about testimonials; Texas does: its rule 501.82 treats testimonials or endorsements not based on verifiable facts as misleading (Texas State Board of Public Accountancy), and requires a CPA who advertises by broadcast, internet included, to keep a recording for 36 months (Texas State Board of Public Accountancy). Florida's rule 61H1-24.001 lists 15 kinds of advertising, the last being websites and other electronic communication (Florida Board of Accountancy), requires a self-designation disclaimer on any "specialist" claim (Florida Board of Accountancy), and treats ads that play on clients' fears about money as misleading (Florida Board of Accountancy). Florida can fine up to $5,000 per count (Florida Legislature); its guideline for one count of misleading advertising is a $250 to $1,000 fine (Florida Board of Accountancy).
Client data security. The FTC Safeguards Rule treats an accountant or tax preparation service as a financial institution (eCFR), and the IRS says that applies regardless of size (IRS Publication 5708). Since May 2024 a covered firm must tell the FTC within 30 days of a breach involving at least 500 consumers (eCFR). Firms with records on fewer than five thousand consumers are exempt from some written-plan elements (eCFR).
What happened to "free" tax-prep ads
In May 2022, 51 attorneys general announced a $141 million settlement with Intuit over ads for "free" TurboTax (California Attorney General). The California attorney general said 70% of taxpayers qualified for IRS Free File (California Attorney General), and that many "Free Edition" users found out late they had to pay $59.99 or more (California Attorney General). About 4.4 million people received payments in May 2023 (Texas Attorney General). The FTC's separate order, which would have barred Intuit for twenty years from calling products free unless conditions were met (Fifth Circuit), was VACATED by the Fifth Circuit on March 20, 2026 on constitutional grounds, without a ruling on whether the ads deceived (Fifth Circuit). H&R Block agreed in November 2024 to pay $7 million over "free" filing claims and downgrade practices (FTC); the FTC put the civil penalty for each later order violation at up to $51,744, the 2024 amount (FTC). Its final order requires "free" ads to state the share of taxpayers who qualify or that the majority of taxpayers do not qualify (FTC).
What do the popular accounting marketing numbers really say?
Six numbers turn up again and again on accounting-marketing blogs, software vendors' pages and agency sites. We traced each one back as far as it goes.
"75% of CPAs will retire in the next 15 years"
The figure was about AICPA members becoming eligible, not CPAs retiring. A 2018 CPA Practice Advisor column says the AICPA estimates 75 percent of today's CPAs will retire in the next 15 years (CPA Practice Advisor), and Workday, which sells finance software, repeats 75% (Workday). Going Concern traced the 75% in 2020 (Going Concern) to a November 2015 AICPA and NASBA exposure draft on a retired-CPA status, which says approximately 75% of AICPA members would be eligible to retire by 2020, with no method or retirement age given (AICPA and NASBA). We found no AICPA source for the "all CPAs, next 15 years" wording. Use instead: BLS's Current Population Survey counted 331 thousand employed accountants and auditors aged 55 to 64 and 148 thousand aged 65 and over in 2025, out of 1.77 million (BLS), 27.1% of them 55 or older (our calculation). Their median age was 44.7, against 42.1 for all workers (BLS).
"76% of clients find their accountant online"
We found no survey behind it. A marketing-statistics roundup says 76% of tax clients start with an online search, naming no source (Amra & Elma); Thomson Reuters, which sells software to firms, tells firms the share is greater than 60%, also unsourced (Thomson Reuters); a UK agency says 42% find their accountant online (Whito). Use instead: in TaxDome's 2025 survey of 353 U.S. businesses (TaxDome), which sells software to firms and publishes no field dates, 58% found their accountant through a referral and 17% through online search (TaxDome). CPA Practice Advisor's write-up gave the referral share as 57% (CPA Practice Advisor), which does not match TaxDome's report. For individual taxpayers, the TaxSlayer Pro poll above found 49% referred and 3% from social media.
"Video increases client trust by X%"
No accounting study measures trust after a video. A statistics aggregator says 69% of millennial clients prefer firms with video (WorldMetrics) and 81% associate accounting firms with trustworthiness (WorldMetrics), naming no survey; an agency says fewer than 40% of firms published a branded video in the past year, with no source (Webtonic). The nearest "increases trust" figure we found is a vendor's spoken 89% for therapist profile videos (Redd Strategy). Use instead: Gallup's measure of trust in the profession: 35% of U.S. adults rated accountants' honesty and ethics high or very high in December 2025 (Gallup), down from 43% in 2011 (Gallup). For video on accounting firm websites, our own count is in the first section.
"CPA exam candidates are down 33%"
True for one start year, which happened to be a rush year. The CPA Journal reported first-time candidates down 33% from 2016 to 2021 (The CPA Journal), and CPA Practice Advisor relayed the Financial Times calling 2022 the lowest in at least 17 years (CPA Practice Advisor). But 2016, with 48,004 new candidates (Journal of Accountancy), was a rush before the April 2017 exam change, and the 17-year figure counted every test taker, overseas ones included. Unique candidates fell from 102,291 in 2016 (Virginia Society of CPAs) to 67,335 in 2022 (Journal of Accountancy). Use instead: the AICPA's 2025 Trends series: 42,626 new candidates in 2023, another pre-change rush, and 28,082 in 2024 (AICPA), then 16,448 in the first half of 2025 (AICPA); the Journal of Accountancy says 2025 was the highest since 2018 apart from 2023 (Journal of Accountancy).
"The 150-hour rule cut CPA candidates by 15%"
That is one estimate among several. An October 2023 Accounting Today column says the rule caused a 15% drop, about 10,000 fewer candidates a year (Accounting Today); the 10,000 is the columnist's extrapolation. The 15% comes from John Barrios's NBER paper: a 15% fall in first-time candidates (NBER), after a 21% rush the year before a state's rule took effect (NBER). Carpenter and Stephenson (2006) estimated 60 percent (Journal of Labor Research); Sutherland and co-authors found 14% fewer new CPAs, and 26% fewer Black and Hispanic entrants relative to others (MIT Sloan); Metinko and Gray put only about 20% of the 1998-2008 decline in 150-hour states (American Journal of Business Education); and a 2025 working paper covering 1990-2019 finds the effect faded to nothing late in the period (Claremont McKenna College). Use instead: the range, and the new pathway of a 120-hour degree plus two years of experience that states are adopting (NASBA).
"60% of Americans use a paid preparer"
Close, but the popular versions are unsourced. Aggregators say 64% in 2022 (WifiTalents) and 65% in 2023 (Gitnux), with no survey named. The oldest form we found is a 2005 Fox News poll of 900 registered voters: 61 percent use an accountant or tax preparer (Fox News). GAO measured returns, not people: over 55 percent for tax year 2001 (GAO) and 56 percent for 2011 (GAO). Use instead: by May 8, 2026, tax professionals had e-filed 75,316,000 individual returns and taxpayers 65,730,000 self-prepared ones (IRS), so 53.4% of e-filed returns came from professionals (our calculation, e-filed returns only); GAO's 57 percent for fiscal 2024 is above.
"Video on a landing page lifts conversions 80%"
A video production company's page for accounting firms says promo videos lift landing page conversions up to 80% (Beverly Boy Productions). It started with EyeView, a vendor of landing-page video, which reported in November 2009 that one test for one client page converted over 80 percent better (EyeView); its 2010 white paper called over 80% a best case "in some cases" (EyeView), and the one test it fully describes found almost 32 percent (EyeView). Unbounce relayed the 80% in 2010 (Unbounce). Use instead: Unbounce's own 2021 comparison of about 35,000 landing pages per period found pages with video converted about as well as, or slightly worse than, pages without (Unbounce).
We started from the questions people search for about accounting firm video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 350 figures from 66 publishers.
On November 2, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (through the BLS data API), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data, Employment Projections and the Current Population Survey (through Internet Archive copies, because bls.gov refuses automated requests); Census County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics, the 2017 and 2022 Economic Census and the Annual Integrated Economic Survey (through the Census data API); IRS filing season statistics, the IRS Data Book and IRS preparer statistics; GAO, TIGTA and the National Taxpayer Advocate; the AICPA, NASBA, NCES, the Center for Audit Quality and state CPA societies; the SEC filings of H&R Block, Intuit and CBIZ, Thomson Reuters' annual report and the firms' own releases; the eCFR, the U.S. Code, the AICPA Code and Florida and Texas board rules; FTC, state attorney general and court records; Gallup, Pew and the vendor surveys named beside each figure; and the pages behind each popular claim. The homepage figures are our own measurement on the same day, described in the first section. We left out PCAOB firm counts (pcaobus.org refused automated requests), NASBA's paid candidate report, TaxDome's client report (refused automated requests), California's accountancy statute (refused automated requests) and any figure from paid or gated reports.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
2324 Overpass elements -> 2320 with a usable URL (after 1 on .gov/.edu hosts) -> minus 14 on directory/social/software-vendor hosts {'facebook.com': 12, 'yellowpages.com': 1, 'taxdome.com': 1} -> 2306 records -> 1347 distinct registrable hosts
30 / 246 readable homepages with video_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player: a <video> element or player iframe/placeholder (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Vidyard, Brightcove, Loom, Facebook video ...) at least 150x80 px, or a labelled click-to-play control or hidden player embed
18 / 246 readable homepages with video_self_hosted = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player that is a native <video> element (file served by the site or its site builder/CDN, incl. background videos)
13 / 246 readable homepages with video_embedded = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player from a third-party host (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Facebook, TikTok ...)
9 / 246 readable homepages with youtube_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a YouTube player (iframe, lite-youtube placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
23 / 246 readable homepages with youtube_channel_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to a YouTube channel or handle (not a single video; template placeholders excluded)
37 / 246 readable homepages with instagram_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to an Instagram profile (template placeholders excluded)
33 / 246 readable homepages with free_consultation = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: free/complimentary/no-cost/no-obligation consultation, consult, initial meeting, (tax) review or assessment, discovery call or second look offered in the page text, a button or a link (free e-file/filing software, toll-free numbers excluded)
116 / 246 readable homepages with client_portal = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: client portal or secure file exchange: client portal/login/center/vault, secure/online portal, secure file or document upload/exchange, "upload your documents", or a named portal vendor (SmartVault, ShareFile, TaxDome, Canopy, Liscio, Karbon, SafeSend, Verifyle, Suralink, CCH Axcess/iFirm portal, NetClient, Onvio, Intuit Link, Citrix, Box ...) in the page text, a link or a button (employee/payroll logins, webmail and admin logins excluded)
62 / 246 readable homepages with online_payment = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: online payment: pay online/now/invoice/bill, make a payment, online payments, payment portal, or a named processor (CPACharge, LawPay, PayPal, Stripe, QuickBooks Payments, Square, Bill.com) in the page text, or a link to a payment page/processor (IRS tax payments, estimated-tax and payroll wording excluded)
87 / 246 readable homepages with online_booking_or_request = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: online booking or appointment/consultation request: a button or link labelled book/schedule/request/make/set up an appointment, consultation, meeting, call or visit, book/schedule online/now, or "request an appointment/consultation" (not tel:/mailto:, not labels starting "Call"), an appointment/booking/scheduling/consultation URL path, or a scheduler link or iframe (Calendly, Acuity, HubSpot Meetings, Microsoft Bookings, Setmore, YouCanBook.me ...); on-page forms are counted separately
87 / 246 readable homepages with online_form = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online form on the homepage: a non-search <form> with at least 2 visible fields, or 1 visible email/phone/message field, or an embedded third-party form or scheduler widget; tel: and mailto: links never count
110 / 246 readable homepages with cpa_named = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "CPA"/"CPAs"/"C.P.A." (upper case) or "Certified Public Accountant(s)" in the page title or text
29 / 246 readable homepages with enrolled_agent_named = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "Enrolled Agent(s)" or the EA credential after a name (", EA", "(EA)") in the page text, or a link labelled enrolled agent
16 / 246 readable homepages with quickbooks_proadvisor = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: QuickBooks ProAdvisor (or Certified QuickBooks / QuickBooks Online certified) in the page text, a badge image alt text/file name or a link
105 / 246 readable homepages with advisory_cfo_services = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: advisory, fractional/outsourced/virtual CFO or controller, CFO services, client accounting services (CAS), business consulting/advisory, management consulting, succession planning or business valuation in the page text, or a link labelled advisory/CFO/business consulting (broker-dealer "advisory services offered through" disclosures excluded)
57 / 246 readable homepages with tax_resolution_irs_problems = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: tax resolution/relief/debt/problems/controversy, IRS problems/representation/audits/notices/letters/collections, back taxes, audit representation/defense, offer in compromise, penalty abatement, installment agreements, unfiled returns, wage garnishment, liens or levies in the page text or a link
112 / 246 readable homepages with bookkeeping_services = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "bookkeeping" (or book-keeping) in the page text or a link
106 / 246 readable homepages with tax_planning = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: tax planning, tax strategy/strategies, tax savings strategies, tax minimization or proactive tax in the page text or a link
76 / 246 readable homepages with tax_deadline_or_season = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: April 15, tax/filing deadline, tax extension, file an extension, tax season, filing season, October 15, tax day, or tax due dates in the page text or a link
29 / 246 readable homepages with refund_or_irs_tool_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "Where's my refund", IRS2Go, refund status or track/check your refund in the page text, or a link to an IRS online tool page (refund status, payments, online account, transcripts, withholding estimator, forms, EIN, IP PIN)
143 / 246 readable homepages with resources_calculators_newsletter = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a Resources menu or resource center, tax or financial calculators, tax tools/guides/library/rates/calendar/forms, key tax dates, IRS forms, tax/financial news, tips or articles, or a newsletter in the page text or a link
17 / 246 readable homepages with spanish_language = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: Spanish-language service shown: español, se habla (español), hablamos, Spanish-speaking or services in Spanish in the page text (place names like Spanish Fork and Google-Translate language lists excluded), html lang or hreflang "es", or a link to a Spanish version (Español, /es/, lang=es)
73 / 246 readable homepages with reviews_testimonials = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: testimonials or reviews shown: page text with testimonials, client reviews or stories, "what our clients say", Google reviews, star ratings or review counts; a link labelled testimonials/reviews or to a /testimonials or /reviews path; or a review-widget request (Birdeye, Podium, Elfsight, Trustindex ...)
48 / 246 readable homepages with careers_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link labelled careers, jobs, join our team, now hiring, employment, open positions, hiring, apply now or work with us, or a link to a /careers, /jobs, /employment, /join-our-team or /now-hiring path
64 / 246 readable homepages with meet_the_team = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "meet the/our team, staff, CPAs, accountants, partners, professionals, people or owner", "get to know us/our team", or a title-case menu item "Our Team/People/Staff/Professionals/Partners" in the page text, or a link labelled so or to a /team, /staff, /our-team, /people, /professionals or /meet-the-... path
2 / 246 readable homepages with meet_or_about_video = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a video player whose title or label, or the nearest heading above it, says meet/about us/welcome/get to know/our team, firm, practice, story or staff, who we are, introducing, founder or "CPA" (floor: videos without such a label are not counted)
39 / 246 readable homepages with network_or_association_member = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: accounting network or association membership shown: an association network named (CPAmerica, Allinial, PrimeGlobal, BKR, Moore, RSM US Alliance, HLB, Kreston, Praxity, IGAF, DFK, Morison, Leading Edge Alliance, Nexia, AGN, Geneva Group, Baker Tilly International, Russell Bedford) or a private-equity statement, "member/part of the ... network/alliance/association/society/institute" or "member firm", the AICPA, a state CPA society, NATP, NAEA, the National Society of Accountants or PCPS named with a membership cue, or such a logo badge image
17 / 246 readable homepages with chat_widget = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a live-chat or web-chat widget: a network request to a chat vendor (Podium, Birdeye webchat, GoHighLevel/LeadConnector widgets, HubSpot chat, Intercom, Drift, Tawk.to, LiveChat, Tidio, Talkdesk ...) or a chat-widget element on the page (form iframes excluded)
7 / 246 readable homepages with corporate_chain = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: tax-prep chain, national accounting firm or franchise shown: the host is a flagged chain host (H&R Block, Block Advisors, Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax, World Finance, ATAX, Padgett, Fiducial, Baker Tilly, BDO, Eide Bailly, TaxSlayer ..., or a franchisee domain carrying one of those brand names), the page names such a chain with an ownership cue (copyright, owned/operated by, part of, franchise), or a franchise / "part of the X family/group" / "independently owned" statement
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Our homepage sample comes from a volunteer map. OpenStreetMap covers accounting and tax offices someone mapped with a website; we read a random 400 of 1,347 such websites and 246 were readable. Forty refused crawlers in robots.txt, most through one shared website template, so firms on that platform are missing.
Federal counts mix several businesses. NAICS 5412 combines CPA offices, tax preparers, bookkeepers and payroll services, and most accountants work outside accounting firms; each figure names its scope.
IRS counts and surveys measure different things. The IRS counts returns, GAO counts taxpayers and polls count people who say they use a preparer; the fiscal-year Data Book and the weekly filing season counts also differ.
Most firm surveys come from sellers. Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, Intuit, Karbon, Canopy, Mango, Ignition, TaxDome and TaxSlayer Pro sell to firms or preparers, and some survey only their own customers; each is named beside its figure.
Nobody measures what video does for an accounting firm. We found no study of clients won from firm video; the experimental evidence is about video explaining money topics.
Some figures are old. The Pew filing survey is from 2013, the GAO error estimate from 2006-2009 audits and the social media study from 2018; each is dated on the page.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/accounting-firm-video-statistics#TAX-030. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Accounting Firm Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/accounting-firm-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 2). Accounting firm video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/accounting-firm-video-statistics
MLA
“Accounting Firm Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 2 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/accounting-firm-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Accounting Firm Video Statistics.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/accounting-firm-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_accounting_firm_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Accounting Firm Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/accounting-firm-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
Thomson Reuters Institute (Thomson Reuters sells tax and accounting software to firms), 2026 State of Tax Professionals Report (2026-06). Accessed 2026-11-02.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 2, 2026: First published with 350 figures from 66 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many accounting firms use video on their website?
In our November 2, 2026 read of 246 U.S. accounting, CPA and tax office homepages sampled from OpenStreetMap, 12.2% showed a video player. 3.7% embedded a YouTube player and 9.3% linked to a YouTube channel.
What share of Americans use a paid tax preparer?
Tax professionals e-filed 72,821,000 of the 140,222,000 individual returns the IRS received by April 17, 2026. GAO, citing IRS data, says 57 percent of taxpayers used a paid preparer in fiscal 2024.
How many accountants are there in the U.S.?
U.S. employers had 1,449,500 wage and salary accountants and auditors in May 2025, with a median wage of $83,680. IRS records show 209,076 CPAs held a preparer number for 2026.
How do clients find an accountant?
Mostly by referral. In a September 2025 poll for TaxSlayer Pro, 49% of preparer users were referred by someone they know and 3% found theirs through social media; in TaxDome's 2025 business survey, 58% found their accountant by referral and 17% through online search.
Is the number of new CPAs falling?
New CPA exam candidates fell from 49,597 in 2010 to 28,082 in 2024, but undergraduate accounting enrollment grew 7.3% in fall 2025 and more than 40 jurisdictions have added a path to licensure without the 150-hour rule.
Can a tax preparer use client results in a marketing video?
Only with care. Treasury regulations bar marketing that cites dollar amounts of clients' refunds without each client's written consent, and an unauthorized disclosure carries a $250 civil penalty under IRC section 6713.
Do accounting firms have to keep copies of their ads?
Yes. Circular 230 requires practitioners to keep copies of direct-mail and e-commerce ads for 36 months and to record radio and television ads; Texas requires CPAs to keep broadcast and internet ad recordings for 36 months.
