Starting prices
| Service | Starts at | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Personal return, W-2 income only | $285 | A return built from W-2s, with the standard deduction and the credits that follow from it. Federal and Oregon, or federal and Washington, filed together. |
| Personal return, more than W-2s | $385 | Itemized deductions, investment income, retirement distributions, education credits, a second state, or the local Portland-area filings that sit alongside the Oregon return. |
| Small business, rental and farm returns | $525 | Schedule C, Schedule E and Schedule F filed with the personal return — sole traders, single-member LLCs, landlords and farms. |
| S-corps, C-corps and partnerships | $1,900 | A separate entity return — 1120-S, 1120 or 1065 — with the K-1s that come out of it, plus the Oregon filings the entity triggers. |
| Bookkeeping | $85 an hour | Monthly bookkeeping, catch-up work and QuickBooks setup, billed for the time it takes. Ongoing monthly engagements settle into a predictable number once the books are clean. |
| Notary | $10 per stamp | Oregon notary public services at both offices, including loan signings. |
What moves the number
Two households on the same income can be an hour apart in preparation time. The variables that matter most here, in roughly the order they bite:
- How many jurisdictions you file in. This is the big one in this metro. A Clackamas household filing federal and Oregon is one thing; a Vancouver household with Oregon-source wages, or a Portland household inside both Metro SHS and Preschool for All, is filing several returns rather than one.
- Whether the books are ready. A business return prepared from reconciled books is a review. One prepared from a shoebox is a reconstruction, and it is billed as bookkeeping before it is billed as a return. See catch-up bookkeeping.
- Rental and business schedules. Each Schedule C, E or F is a separate set of numbers, a separate depreciation schedule and a separate set of questions.
- Investment activity. A dozen 1099-Bs with clean basis reporting is quick. Missing basis, crypto, or an equity compensation event is not.
- Prior years. If we are also fixing something — an amended return, an unfiled year, a notice already in hand — that is scoped separately.
What the price includes
- The return itself, federal and state, prepared and reviewed in-house before you sign it
- A comparison against last year, so a number that moved gets explained rather than filed
- Electronic filing, and the acknowledgements that come back from it
- The conversation afterwards. If the IRS or the Oregon Department of Revenue writes to you about a return we prepared, call us — reading the letter is not a separate engagement.
What we will not price on a webpage
Three of our services are quoted rather than listed, and the reasons are not evasive ones.
- Payroll. Payroll pricing depends on headcount, pay frequency and which jurisdictions you withhold for — and in this metro that last one is the variable that moves the number most. A Portland employer with staff in Vancouver is running a different payroll from a Clackamas employer with staff in Clackamas. Call and we will quote it.
- IRS representation. Representation work is scoped to the notice in front of you. A CP2000 answered with a letter and an audit that runs for a year are not the same engagement, and quoting a starting price for "representation" would be quoting for a category rather than a case.
- Tax planning. Planning is priced against what is being decided. An entity-choice question answered in one sitting and a multi-year plan around a business sale are different pieces of work.
Paying for it
Fees are due when the return is filed. We do not take a cut of your refund, and we would gently suggest being wary of anyone who offers to — a refund-based fee gives the preparer a financial interest in the size of your refund, which is the opposite of the incentive you want them to have.
Will you tell me the price before you start?
Yes. Once we have seen your documents — or last year’s return, which usually tells us most of it — we quote the engagement before we begin. The number on this page is where the conversation starts, not where it ends.
Why is a W-2-only return $285 when software costs $60?
Because software cannot tell you what you did not ask it. If a W-2-only return is genuinely all you have, software may well be the right answer and we will say so. What you are paying for here is someone checking whether it is actually that simple — Portland-area local filings, an Oregon–Washington workday split and the kicker all hide behind returns that look like W-2-only returns.
Is the business return price on top of the personal return?
It depends on the entity. A Schedule C or Schedule E business is part of your personal return and is priced in the small business band. An S-corp, C-corp or partnership files its own return, and you then have a personal return as well — those are two engagements and two fees.
Do you charge for the first conversation?
The first step is a complimentary 15-minute introductory call about your situation and whether we are a good fit. No tax advice is given on that call, and we will quote the work before anything starts.
Do prices change during the season?
The starting prices do not. Work that arrives very close to a deadline can take more time to do safely, and where that is the case we will say so before we start rather than after.
Schedule an appointment
A complimentary fifteen minutes, last year’s return, and whatever changed. Call 503-785-3200 or use the contact page.
Written by
Enrolled Agent, Oregon Licensed Tax Consultant
License number: Enrolled Agent 00160070-EA · Oregon Licensed Tax Consultant 35746-C
Heather has spent more than a decade preparing individual and business returns across the Portland metro and the Columbia Gorge, and holds unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS.
Last reviewed
This page is general information about Oregon, Washington and federal tax rules, not advice about your own return. Thresholds and rates change every year. Figures were verified as of August 2026 — check the linked official sources, or talk to us about your situation.