In Australia, an accountant usually charges between $100 and $200 to prepare a simple individual tax return, the kind with salary and wages and a few standard deductions. The price rises from there with complexity. Add a rental property, shares, or capital gains and it is more like $200 to $400. A sole trader with a business schedule generally runs $300 to $600, and a company tax return commonly starts around $1,000. What you pay depends on how complex your affairs are and how organised your records are when you hand them over.
What you can expect to pay
These are general ranges across Australia. Actual fees vary by firm, location, and how much work your return involves.
| Type of tax return | Typical cost |
| Simple individual (salary and wages) | $100 to $200 |
| Individual with a rental property, shares or capital gains | $200 to $400 |
| Sole trader with a business schedule | $300 to $600 |
| Partnership | $500 to $1,000 |
| Company (Pty Ltd) | $1,000 to $3,000 or more |
| Self-managed super fund | $1,000 to $2,500 or more |
Some firms charge a fixed fee for a defined return, which is easier to budget for, while others bill by the hour for more involved work. For a straightforward individual return, a fixed fee is normal and you should be able to get the price up front.
What makes a tax return cost more?
The fee tracks the amount of work, so anything that adds complexity adds to the price. The common drivers are more than one income source, a rental property, shares or crypto with capital gains to calculate, being a sole trader or having a business, being registered for GST, and having a year of messy or incomplete records that the accountant has to sort out.
That last one is the part you control. A shoebox of unsorted receipts takes longer to work through than a tidy spreadsheet, and that time shows up in the bill. The better organised your paperwork, the closer you sit to the bottom of each range.
Is it cheaper to just do it yourself?
You can lodge your own return for free through myTax, so on paper the DIY route always wins on price. The question is whether an accountant finds you more than they cost. For a very simple return with one job and no deductions, doing it yourself is often fine. Once you have investments, a business, or deductions you are unsure about, an accountant usually pays for themselves by claiming everything you are entitled to and keeping you out of trouble with the ATO.
There is also a deadline difference. If you lodge yourself, your return is generally due by 31 October. If you use a registered tax agent and you are on their books before that date, you usually get an extended deadline, often into the following May. If you want a sense of when a specialist is genuinely worth it, our guide to what a chartered tax advisor does walks through it.
The fee is tax deductible
One thing that softens the cost: the fee you pay a registered tax agent is itself tax deductible the following year, under the cost of managing your tax affairs. So a $220 return effectively costs you less than $220 once the deduction is counted, depending on your marginal tax rate. It is one of the few bills that partly pays you back.
