Business tax returns per CPA office, by state

Across the 50 states and DC, the IRS received 11,342,899 S corporation and partnership returns in fiscal year 2025. Census counted 55,052 offices of certified public accountants with paid employees in 2023. That works out to 206 pass-through business returns for every CPA office.

The spread between states is wide. Delaware has 354 per office and West Virginia has 115. The full table is below, with the method and the source files, so you can check every number yourself.

Why this number matters to a firm owner

S corporation and partnership owners face planning decisions every year: owner pay, entity choice and state elections. A state with more of those returns per CPA office has more potential planning clients for each firm. A state with fewer has more firms chasing each one.

It is a rough measure. It tells you where the ground is thick or thin. It doesn't tell you how many of those owners already have a planner.

Pass-through returns per CPA office, all 50 states and DC

Ranked from most to fewest returns per office. Returns are IRS fiscal year 2025. Offices are Census 2023.

Rank	State	S corporation returns	Partnership returns	CPA offices	Pass-through returns per CPA office	S corporation returns per CPA office
1	Delaware	17,737	32,463	142	354	125
2	Wyoming	19,956	34,987	162	339	123
3	Utah	93,791	102,906	640	307	147
4	Florida	884,606	495,877	4,664	296	190
5	South Dakota	18,237	21,268	142	278	128
6	Nevada	65,715	52,592	447	265	147
7	Texas	482,278	547,610	4,096	251	118
8	New York	440,562	433,623	3,519	248	125
9	South Carolina	91,594	70,472	675	240	136
10	District of Columbia	7,931	14,525	97	232	82
11	Nebraska	38,587	36,164	339	221	114
12	Minnesota	102,456	77,634	843	214	122
13	Indiana	99,990	75,314	827	212	121
14	North Dakota	13,796	16,710	145	210	95
15	Virginia	139,564	107,377	1,183	209	118
16	Illinois	300,860	160,021	2,229	207	135
17	Michigan	158,060	121,092	1,349	207	117
18	Wisconsin	74,530	67,463	686	207	109
19	Mississippi	34,046	35,800	346	202	98
20	Georgia	223,134	138,972	1,800	201	124
21	Maine	25,754	17,065	214	200	120
22	Massachusetts	115,753	100,956	1,091	199	106
23	Washington	132,072	103,384	1,183	199	112
24	Arizona	122,559	96,565	1,124	195	109
25	Iowa	49,582	47,264	497	195	100
26	New Jersey	130,440	220,135	1,801	195	72
27	Pennsylvania	185,952	172,150	1,838	195	101
28	Missouri	80,295	87,584	869	193	92
29	Kansas	41,881	46,410	471	187	89
30	North Carolina	171,908	135,112	1,674	183	103
31	Tennessee	47,218	93,843	796	177	59
32	Colorado	148,240	118,283	1,516	176	98
33	Montana	32,323	27,553	342	175	95
34	Ohio	136,596	144,101	1,623	173	84
35	Connecticut	34,893	74,627	646	170	54
36	California	775,928	501,509	7,542	169	103
37	Arkansas	43,788	36,845	487	166	90
38	Maryland	92,294	81,862	1,050	166	88
39	Oregon	69,900	58,216	775	165	90
40	Vermont	11,071	10,203	129	165	86
41	New Hampshire	12,743	21,083	206	164	62
42	Kentucky	51,310	47,890	611	162	84
43	Alabama	61,778	59,908	755	161	82
44	Alaska	11,961	8,948	131	160	91
45	Oklahoma	66,012	62,175	808	159	82
46	Rhode Island	19,921	13,412	212	157	94
47	Idaho	43,625	37,504	519	156	84
48	Louisiana	72,587	72,840	962	151	75
49	New Mexico	23,763	21,124	316	142	75
50	Hawaii	19,942	14,544	295	117	68
51	West Virginia	13,654	13,761	238	115	57
	50 states plus DC	6,153,173	5,189,726	55,052	206	112

Source: IRS Data Book FY2025, Table 1-3, columns "S corporation" and "Partnership"; Census County Business Patterns 2023, state file, NAICS 541211, all legal forms, establishment count. Ratios are rounded to the nearest whole number. Calculation: compute.py in the data folder.

What stands out

The middle state has 195. Ranked 26th of 51, New Jersey sits at 195 pass-through returns per CPA office. Of the 51, 41 fall between 150 and 250.
Delaware, Wyoming and South Dakota top the list. Our reading, not an IRS finding: these states are popular places to register a company. The IRS notes to Table 1-3 say businesses are sorted by the location of the principal office or place of business, that some individuals use the address of a tax attorney or accountant, and that a corporation's operations may be in one or more other states. A return counted in Wyoming may belong to an owner who lives and works somewhere else.
Florida is the big state with the most per office. Florida filed 884,606 S corporation returns, more than California's 775,928, with 4,664 CPA offices against California's 7,542. That gives Florida 296 pass-through returns per office and California 169.
Texas and New York are well above the middle. Texas has 251 per office and New York 248.
Hawaii and West Virginia are at the bottom, with 117 and 115.

Most CPA offices are small

Of the 55,052 CPA offices, 35,650 had fewer than 5 employees and 45,984 had fewer than 10 (Census CBP 2023, employee size classes, 50 states plus DC). That is 64.8% and 83.5%.

Method

Business returns. IRS Data Book, fiscal year 2025, Table 1-3, "Number of Returns and Other Forms Filed, by Type and State". We used the S corporation column (Form 1120-S) and the Partnership column (Form 1065) for each state and DC. Fiscal year 2025 runs from October 2024 to September 2025, so most of these returns cover tax year 2024.
CPA offices. Census County Business Patterns 2023, state file (cbp23st.txt). We took rows with NAICS code 541211, "Offices of certified public accountants", and legal form "all establishments", and used the establishment count. CBP covers establishments with paid employees only.
Ratio. (S corporation returns plus partnership returns) divided by CPA offices, per state. The S corporation only ratio uses S corporation returns alone.
Totals. The 50 states plus DC row is the sum of the 51 state rows. It leaves out Puerto Rico and the IRS "Other" row (territories, armed forces overseas and international), so it is a little below the IRS United States total.
Size classes. Census hides very small cell counts in the larger size classes, so the published classes add up to 54,993, slightly under the 55,052 office total. The under 5 and under 10 counts are published in full for every state, and we divide them by the 55,052 total.

Nothing is estimated or filled in. Every number on this page comes straight from one of the two files or from simple arithmetic on them, shown in compute.py.

Limits of this data

Years differ. The returns are IRS fiscal year 2025 and the offices are 2023, the latest CBP year available as a free file on 25 Oct 2026. The 2024 file was not yet posted.
Solo CPAs without staff are missing. CBP counts only establishments with paid employees. A CPA working alone with no payroll doesn't appear.
Enrolled agents aren't in the office count. EA practices usually fall under NAICS 541213, tax preparation services, which also includes chains and seasonal preparers. We left that code out so the count stays clean.
An office is a location, not a firm. A firm with five offices counts five times.
Address effects. Business returns follow the address on the return, as the IRS notes explain above.

Sources

IRS, SOI Tax Stats, IRS Data Book Table 1-3, Number of Returns Filed, by Type of Return and State. Page: https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-number-of-returns-filed-by-type-of-return-and-state-and-fiscal-year-irs-data-book-table-1-3. File used: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/25db-1-03-nr.xlsx (downloaded 25 Oct 2026).
US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, state file: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/datasets/2023/cbp23st.zip (downloaded 25 Oct 2026). Record layout: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/technical-documentation/records-layouts/2020_record_layouts/state-layout-2020.txt. Industry codes: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/technical-documentation/reference/naics-descriptions/naics.txt.
US Census Bureau, About County Business Patterns ("establishments with paid employees"): https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/about.html.

Both data sources are free public downloads that need no account.

About Financial Sales Insider

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Johnny Logan, Founder, Financial Sales Insider. General information for tax firm owners. Not tax or legal advice.

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