Self-employment method
Offices of Certified Public Accountants
34,454 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 34,454 people who filed under this code in 2022, 27.28% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 34,454 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 5,238 | 15.2% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 4,161 | 12.1% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 6,713 | 19.5% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 5,708 | 16.6% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 5,574 | 16.2% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 5,057 | 14.7% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,439 | 4.2% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 439 | 1.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 125 | 0.4% |
Who this suits
At a $29,883 median in gross receipts, the typical person under this code is running a real but part-time operation. Full-time equivalence would require roughly triple this before costs.
34,454 people filed under this code, almost none of whom appear in any employment statistic. Offices of Certified Public Accountants is part of the economy salary surveys simply do not see.
7,063 filers, 20.5% of the total, took $100,000 or more in receipts. Read the size of that group as evidence about turnover in Offices of Certified Public Accountants rather than about income: the costs scale with it.
Independent professional work suits people who can carry the whole business — delivery, sales, admin and collections — because with no employees all four are one person’s week.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 34,454 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $9,056, top quarter over $86,065: 9.5x, or $6,417 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Offices of Certified Public Accountants earns under $9,056 — $40,964 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this if you dislike selling. Skill is not the constraint in this subsector — client acquisition is, and it never stops being.
9,399 of the 34,454 people filing in 2022 grossed under $10,000 across twelve months — 27.3% of the field. A quarter or more of everyone in Offices of Certified Public Accountants took in less revenue than a part-time job would have paid in wages.
Take it as a floor, not an estimate. The $10,000 threshold is measured on money received, before materials, rent, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax, so the true share of filers who ended the year with no income is higher than the figure shown — we simply cannot say how much higher.
What the spread tells you
At 9.5x, the gap between $9,056 and $86,065 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $29,883 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
In cash terms the middle half of Offices of Certified Public Accountants runs $9,056 to $86,065 — $77,009 a year between the 25th and 75th percentiles, against a midpoint of $29,883.
The 75th percentile is $86,065. Reaching it from the $29,883 midpoint is $56,182 a year; reaching it from the $9,056 that the bottom quarter of Offices of Certified Public Accountants earn is $77,009.
$20,827 below the midpoint, $56,182 above it. That asymmetry is extreme even for this data, and it means every summary of Offices of Certified Public Accountants that is not a median — including any average you see quoted elsewhere — is describing the top of the range rather than the middle.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $14.36 an hour at the midpoint, $4.35 at the 25th percentile and $41.37 at the 75th. That is turnover per hour, not pay per hour, and it is not comparable with the $24.04 an hour a typical American job pays.
Straight from the Census bands for Offices of Certified Public Accountants: 5,238 filers under $5,000, 4,161 between $5,000 and $9,999, 6,713 between $10,000 and $24,999, 7,060 above $100,000 and 2,003 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Every figure above is GROSS RECEIPTS, before expenses — money that arrived before rent, materials, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax. The $29,883 midpoint for Offices of Certified Public Accountants is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $29,883 salary.
The hourly number on this page is $29,883 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Offices of Certified Public Accountants, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else