How much does an accountant cost in Australia? (real fee ranges)

Accounting is one of the few professional purchases where the price is almost never on the website — which leaves owners guessing whether $300 or $3,000 is the right answer. This is a plain summary of what Australian firms actually charge in 2026, why the ranges are as wide as they are, and where our own published fees sit inside them.

Individual tax returns

A straightforward return — salary, bank interest, the usual deductions — sits around $250 to $500 at a suburban or city firm. Online-adviser services start lower, from roughly $284 for a light business return. The budget end of the market goes considerably cheaper, and there the product is genuinely different: data entry and lodgement, no review conversation.

Add complexity and the number moves sharply. A return with rental property, a share portfolio or crypto typically runs $600 to $1,200, because each of those brings real work — a rental schedule, a cost-base history, disposal calculations that have to be right the first time.

Ours are from $180 and from $350 respectively, both including a 20-minute video review before anything is lodged.

Business subscriptions

This is where the market has changed most. Fixed monthly plans have largely replaced hourly billing for compliance work.

Bookkeeping with BAS across the wider market runs anywhere from $500 to $1,800 a month, driven almost entirely by transaction volume and payroll headcount. If a quote sits at the bottom of that band, check what happens when volumes rise — the cheap tier usually has a ceiling.

Set-up work

Company registration runs $700 to $1,200 at online registrars, and around $990 including the ASIC fee at a competitive accounting firm. Ours is $1,090 plus ASIC’s $636 registration fee, charged at cost and GST-free. A discretionary trust is $500 to $1,000 for the deed across the market; ours is $690.

The honest note here: registration itself is a commodity. What you are paying an accountant for is the ten minutes before the form — who holds the shares, whether a trust belongs above the company, what the exit looks like. That conversation is cheap now and expensive to unwind later, which is why we do not compete with $600 registrars on price.

SMSF work

Establishing a fund with a corporate trustee is $1,000 to $2,500 generally, and $1,495 at the specialist online end — the same as ours, $1,495.

Annual administration is where the spread gets genuinely large. Online specialists run $1,300 to $2,000 a year including audit. The ATO’s own statistics put the median total operating expense per fund at roughly $4,300, which tells you how much of the market is still paying traditional-practice rates for work that is now largely automated by data feeds. Ours are $1,650/yr for a standard fund and $2,200/yr for a complex one, with the independent auditor’s fee passed through at cost.

For the audit itself, the ATO median is about $550, with averages in the low $600s. We sell SMSF audits to other accounting firms at $495–$650/fund.

Audits and ongoing services

Trust-account audits for real estate agents and conveyancers run from about $549 at the budget end to $900 at established audit firms. Ours is $649/account per account, and $890/account for a law-practice external examination.

ASIC registered-agent services commonly run $100 to $250 a year; ours is $150/yr.

What actually drives the spread

Scope. Lodgement versus lodgement-plus-planning is the single biggest factor, and it is the one least visible in a quote.

Who touches the file. A partner-reviewed return and a return processed by a seasonal preparer carry different costs because they are different things.

Overheads. A shopfront, reception and city floor space are all in the fee. This is the main reason our published prices sit below traditional practice for comparable work: we do not have any of them.

Complexity you may not have mentioned. Multiple entities, a messy prior year, an ATO dispute. A firm that quotes without asking will re-quote later.

Six questions worth asking any firm

1. What exactly is included, and what is billed separately?
2. Who does the work, and who reviews it?
3. What happens when the ATO writes to me — included or extra?
4. When do prices change, and how much notice do I get?
5. How quickly do you reply, and is that a promise or a hope?
6. If I leave, what do I get and how fast?

A firm that answers all six without hesitating is telling you something more useful than its price.

Every fee we charge is published on our pricing page, ex GST, with government charges shown separately at cost. It is not the cheapest list in the market and it is not meant to be — it is chartered work at online-firm overheads, with the number visible before you commit.

Questions we get about this

General information only — it doesn’t consider your circumstances and isn’t financial product advice. Get advice on your own position before acting; that’s literally what we’re for.