Tax Preparer Fees 2026: What a Multi-State Return Costs

A tax preparer’s fee is not one number, and the reason is your W-2s: on the two price lists below, the shapes a travel nurse actually files ran from $220 to $537. A firm prices the shape of a return: how many states want a form, whether you itemize, and which schedules hang off the 1040. A travel nurse who worked two states and took a per diem sits in a more expensive shape than the person filing one W-2 from one job, so the quoted fee moves before any advice does.

Here are the figures that are actually published, with the source and date beside every one of them. The two price lists below were produced by different organizations in different years, so they are shown separately rather than blended into an average nobody quoted.

The published price lists, in full

This is the schedule Steward & Gram, a CPA firm, published in January 2026. It prices the federal return plus one state return together, then each extra schedule on its own.

What the firm priced	Fee	Source
Form 1040, standard deduction, plus one state return	$220	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
Form 1040 with Schedule A (itemized), plus one state return	$323	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
Schedule C, business or self-employment income	$192	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
Schedule D, capital gains	$118	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
Schedule E, rental income	$145	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
Schedule F, farm income	$200	Same firm, January 2026 schedule

The same firm also published flat-fee bands for whole returns, which is where the spread between “a basic year” and “a travel nurse year” shows up.

Return, priced as a whole	Published range	Source
Basic return, flat fee	$250 to $500	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
Itemized return, flat fee	$400 to $800	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
More complex individual return, flat fee	$500 to $1,000	Same firm, January 2026 schedule
Hourly billing	$150 to $400	Same firm, January 2026 schedule

Intuit’s tax-professional arm published three worked examples tying a fee to a named return shape, and they are useful precisely because they list the documents rather than a vague tier. Two W-2s and a state return is the shape a nurse with one tax home and one assignment state has. Add a second state, or a Schedule D, and the published example for that shape is $350.

Return shape, as published	Fee	Source
Two W-2s and one state return	$238	Intuit pricing report, November 2023
Two W-2s, a Schedule D, three 1098s, one 1099 composite, the Child Tax Credit and two state returns	$350	Intuit pricing report, November 2023
One W-2, eight 1099-INT and 1099-DIV forms, one 1098, a Schedule D, a Schedule E, two 1099-NECs and one state return	$537	Intuit pricing report, November 2023

Your return shape, priced line by line

The three shapes below are the ones travel nursing actually produces, and each maps onto a figure in the tables above instead of onto a made-up average.

• One assignment state, tax home in a no-income-tax state. One non-resident return plus the federal return. Published price for that shape: $238 (Intuit, November 2023), or $220 for the 1040 with one state return on the January 2026 firm schedule.
• Two or three assignment states, or a reciprocity mess. Each extra state is a whole return with its own allocation of your deductions. Published price for the two-state shape with an investment schedule: $350.
• 1099 contract work, or a stipend the agency did not document. Self-employment income pulls in a Schedule C, which the January 2026 schedule prices at $192 on top of the base return, and the three-state-or-business shape is published at $537.

Software is the cheap column in every one of these shapes. H&R Block’s own 2025 tax-year price list, as tracked by SmartAsset, sells Deluxe federal at $35 and then $37 for every state return, including the first, and Self-Employed federal at $85 on the same per-state charge. In an office with a professional, the same list showed H&R Block starting at $89 and Jackson Hewitt’s online service starting at $25, with state returns billed on top.

Option	Published federal price	Published state price
H&R Block Basic, do it yourself	$0	state return included free
H&R Block Deluxe, do it yourself	$35	$37 per state return
H&R Block Premium, do it yourself	$70	$37 per state return
H&R Block Self-Employed, do it yourself	$85	$37 per state return

When you can pay nothing, with the actual limits

Three public routes exist and each has a printed eligibility line, so check them before paying a firm.

• IRS Free File. The IRS states that “IRS Free File tax preparation software is available to taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less in 2025,” and that “some partners may also offer free state tax return preparation and filing,” including “complex ones that include credits, deductions or business expenses.” Some, not all: with two or three state returns, read the partner’s own coverage before you enter your documents. Above that income the IRS offers Free File Fillable Forms, which is blank forms and no software help.
• VITA volunteers. The IRS free-preparation page lists “People who generally make about $70,244 or less,” and states plainly that “the IRS does not set a program-wide income limit” because “individual VITA sites may establish their own.” A multi-state return with per diem and a tax-home question is often beyond what volunteers prepare, so ask the site before driving there.
• TCE for older filers. The IRS describes Tax Counseling for the Elderly as free help “particularly for those who are 60 years of age and older.”

Sources: the IRS Free File newsroom page and the IRS free volunteer preparation page, both checked 6 October 2026. The VITA figure is the number printed on that page on the date checked; it moves with inflation, so re-read it in January rather than trusting this page.

The fee against the money it protects

The reason a nurse pays at all is the size of what is at stake. On the worked example this site published for a 13-week California assignment with a Florida tax home, the nurse whose stipends stayed tax-free kept $3,124 more than the one who took the same pay as taxable wages. A preparer charging $350 is asking for roughly one-ninth of that single difference, and the audit question (do you have a tax home, did you pay for housing twice, can you prove the days) is exactly the kind a preparer answers with documents rather than hope.

Read the three tests on Is Per Diem Taxable? before the appointment, and bring the numbers from the travel nurse tax home rules, because those two pages contain the arguments the preparer has to make on your return.

Nine questions to ask before you hand over money

1. What is the flat total for every state I owe? Ask for the number that includes all returns, not the federal one, and get it in writing.
2. Is a per diem reimbursement taxable on your return? One answer, not “it depends”: a documented reimbursement of duplicate expenses under a real tax home is not income; an undocumented one can be reclassified as wages.
3. Do you prepare the non-resident return for every state I worked, or do I file those yourself? Some firms charge per state or refuse the odd ones.
4. How do you handle two states taxing the same income? You want the words “reciprocity” or “credit for taxes paid,” and a plain explanation of which one applies to your pair of states.
5. What happens if a state sends a notice in June? Ask who replies, and whether that costs extra.
6. Are you a CPA or an enrolled agent, and what is your PTIN? Every paid preparer must hold a Preparer Tax Identification Number; a firm that cannot give you one is not getting your documents.
7. Will you e-file and will you keep a signed copy of the return? You sign Form 8879 for the federal return and that state’s own e-file authorization for each state, never a blanket permission.
8. What do you charge for amended returns, and who pays if the error is yours? Get the amended-return price before the deadline rather than after.
9. Do you give year-round advice, or only in February? A nurse who asks in November “which state should I set up a tax home in?” is asking a planning question, and planning is where the fee earns its keep.

Timing: the deadline that changes the price

The IRS filing date for a calendar-year 2025 return was April 15, 2026, and the page states you can “request an automatic 6-month extension of time to file,” which lands on October 15, 2026. Two things happen to fees around those dates: firms raise or stop accepting late work after the extension date, and the W-2 and 1099-NEC corrections that arrive in January are exactly the documents that change your return shape. If you are asking in October, ask the firm directly whether they still take your year, because many close the queue.

What the fee never includes

• Anything the firm prices per form on top of the flat fee: the Schedule C, D and E lines above are the published add-ons, and each of them is a separate number.
• Extra state returns beyond the first, which the January 2026 schedule does not price at all. That is the number to ask for.
• Representation before the IRS unless you sign for it separately, and amended returns.
• Bookkeeping. A 1099 nurse who needs monthly records is buying a different service.

Next step: whatever you decide to pay, the return is only half the job. The free travel nurse budget spreadsheet keeps the tax money out of your checking account between assignments, which is what the fee is supposed to protect.

This article does not constitute personalized tax advice. Fee figures are published price examples from the dated sources named above, not quotes. Consult a CPA or enrolled agent about your specific circumstances before filing.

Written for travel nurses by Michael Chen, CPA. Figures checked against the published price lists cited on this page and 2026 IRS rules, 6 October 2026.

Sources we checked

Every figure on this page came from one of the documents below, not from another blog. Links checked 10 October 2026.

• IRS – State government websites: The standing list of every state revenue department, which is where a nonresident return actually gets filed.
• IRS Free File: The adjusted-gross-income ceiling for guided software at no cost and the Fillable Forms fallback above it.