Short answer
The San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area has 884 accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll offices with paid employees, employing 5,575 people (Census County Business Patterns, 2023). Bexar County has 695 of them. 293 are CPA offices and 229 tax preparation offices. CPA firms with a Texas office must be licensed by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy; check them in its license lookup, and check other preparers' credentials in the IRS directory.
- 884 offices employ 5,575 people, an average of 6.3 per office, at average pay of $71,866.
- Tax preparation offices are 26% of the total; CPA offices are 33%.
- 62% of the 4,826 preparers in the IRS listing for the metro hold no IRS credential or filing season record.
- Texas doesn't recognize CPA specialties, so a CPA calling themselves a "specialist" isn't citing a credential.
- Bookkeeping clerks (8,960) outnumber accountants and auditors (8,360) in the metro.
On this page
This page is for San Antonio households and small businesses choosing a tax preparer or accountant, people looking for accounting work, and companies that sell to tax and accounting practices. It covers the Census count, the firm types, Texas rules worth knowing as a client, the IRS preparer data and how to prospect the market.
A market of small offices
County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 5412 (accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services), San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metro Area (CBSA 41700):
| Measure (2023) | San Antonio metro |
|---|---|
| Establishments | 884 |
| Employees (week of March 12) | 5,575 |
| Annual payroll | $400,652,000 |
| Average employees per establishment | 6.3 |
| Average annual pay | $71,866 |
| Share of US establishments | 0.64% of 137,069 |
| County | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| Bexar | 695 | 4,993 |
| Comal | 76 | 258 |
| Guadalupe | 36 | 127 |
| Kendall | 31 | 67 |
| Medina | 15 | 46 |
| Wilson | 15 | Not reported (high-noise figure) |
| Atascosa | 9 | 30 |
| Bandera | 7 | 23 |
Wilson County's employee total was published but flagged as high-noise: confidentiality noise changed it by 5% or more. By size, 624 offices have 1 to 4 employees, 151 have 5 to 9, 59 have 10 to 19, 35 have 20 to 49, 8 have 50 to 99 and 6 have 100 to 249. The Census Bureau doesn't publish the classes from 250 up; subtracting from the total leaves 1 office with 250 or more employees. San Antonio ranks 30th among US metro areas by number of accounting offices, by our ranking of the CBP metro file.
CBP counts establishments with paid employees, not firms, and leaves out the self-employed. SEC EDGAR has no listed accounting companies to add, because its industry list has no accounting code.
Tax shops, bookkeepers and CPA firms
| Type (NAICS 2022) | Offices | Share | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other accounting, including bookkeeping (541219) | 339 | 38% | 1,484 |
| CPA offices (541211) | 293 | 33% | 2,732 |
| Tax preparation (541213) | 229 | 26% | Not reported (high-noise figure) |
| Payroll services (541214) | 23 | 3% | 159 |
The 229 tax preparation offices do returns only; for books, payroll or a review of your statements you need one of the other types. Only a licensed CPA firm can audit or review financial statements, and in Texas any CPA firm with an office in the state must hold a TSBPA firm license, with a majority of ownership held by CPAs.
What a Texas CPA can and can't claim
Texas's rules are useful when you compare firms' websites. The board says "self-laudatory statements that are not based on verifiable facts" aren't acceptable, and although it has the authority to recognize specializations, it doesn't, so CPAs should avoid words like "specialist." Treat "best" and "specialist" as marketing, and ask for verifiable facts instead: how many returns like yours the firm prepares, who will sign them, and, for audit or review work, its latest peer review. Then confirm the license in the TSBPA license lookup.
Who prepares San Antonio's returns
The IRS's August 2026 preparer listing, released under the Freedom of Information Act, has 4,826 preparers with a business address in the metro: 1,180 CPAs, 323 enrolled agents and 99 attorneys. 3,013 (62%) hold no IRS credential and no Annual Filing Season Program record. The city of San Antonio lists 3,632 of the preparers, 872 of them CPAs and 238 enrolled agents.
- Ask for the PTIN and the credential. Every paid preparer needs a PTIN; only CPAs, enrolled agents and attorneys can represent you in every IRS matter.
- Check the history. The IRS suggests asking the Better Business Bureau about a preparer.
- Avoid refund-based fees and anyone who wants your refund deposited into their account.
- Ask whether they'll be around after April, in case the IRS sends a letter.
- If your income is modest, you may not need to pay at all: the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program generally serves people who meet the earned income tax credit guidelines, typically $70,244 or less, and its site locator lists free sites.
Jobs and pay
Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025, San Antonio-New Braunfels metro: 8,360 accountants and auditors at a median of $78,650, 8,960 bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $48,150, and 4,910 financial managers at $144,710. Tax preparer employment isn't published for the metro. In CBP, CPA offices pay $86,220 per employee, our calculation from payroll.
Selling to San Antonio tax and accounting practices
Illustrative example. The company and rates are invented; the counts come from CBP.
Alamo Pay (alamopay.example) sells card and refund-transfer payment processing to independent tax offices. Its list is the 229 tax preparation offices plus the bookkeeping offices that also prepare returns. It starts with the 229, finds each office's owner and phone from its storefront website, and visits Bexar County offices in person in October and November, when owners set up for the season. At an illustrative 25% meeting rate, that's 57 meetings; at a 20% close rate, 11 offices signed before January.
Subject: The fee comparison for [office name] Hi [first name], Thanks for the time on [day]. As promised, here's the side-by-side for an office your size: last season's [number] card payments at your current rate, and the same volume at ours. If the numbers work, setup takes about [time], so we'd have you ready well before January. Want me to stop by [day] to go through it? [Your name]
Finding the owner of each small office is the slow part at volume; Bebop finds matching practices and contacts. For firm roles and buying cycles see the list of accounting firms, and for the IRS file see how many accountants there are.
Local sources
| Source | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| TSBPA CPA firms | Firm licensing, advertising and client records rules |
| IRS free tax return preparation | Who qualifies for VITA and TCE, and the site locator |
| TXCPA San Antonio | The local chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs, with a member directory |
| greater:SATX | The region's economic development organization |
Next step: for the larger Texas markets, see accounting firms in Houston.
Sources
- County Business Patterns (CBP), 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- North American Industry Classification System, 2022 (industries 541211 to 541219), US Census Bureau, 2022, accessed 30 October 2026
- CPA firms (advertising, Board Rule 501.82, and firm licensing), Texas State Board of Public Accountancy, accessed 30 October 2026
- The Public Accountancy Act, Chapter 901 of the Occupations Code (sections 901.351 and 901.354), Texas State Board of Public Accountancy, 2025, accessed 30 October 2026
- PTIN information and the Freedom of Information Act (preparer listings by state), Internal Revenue Service, updated 14 August 2026
- Topic no. 254, How to choose a tax return preparer, Internal Revenue Service, accessed 30 October 2026
- Free tax return preparation for qualifying taxpayers, Internal Revenue Service, updated 19 October 2026
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: metropolitan area estimates, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many accounting firms are in San Antonio?
Census County Business Patterns counted 884 accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll establishments with paid employees in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area in 2023, employing 5,575 people. Bexar County had 695 of them. 293 were CPA offices and 229 tax preparation offices. The figures count offices, not firms, and exclude preparers who work alone.
Can a Texas CPA call themselves a tax specialist?
The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy has the authority to recognize specializations but currently doesn't, so it says CPAs should avoid terms like "specialist" that imply board recognition. Its rules also bar self-laudatory statements not based on verifiable facts. Ask a firm for concrete facts about its experience instead, and confirm the license in the board's lookup.
Where can I get free tax help in San Antonio?
The IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program offers free return preparation, generally for people who meet the earned income tax credit guidelines, which the IRS gives as typically $70,244 or less; individual sites can set their own limits. Tax Counseling for the Elderly focuses on people 60 and older. The IRS site locator lists sites by ZIP code.
How much do accountants make in San Antonio?
Accountants and auditors in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area earned a median of $78,650 a year in May 2025, across 8,360 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bookkeeping clerks earned $48,150 and financial managers $144,710. Census puts pay per employee at the metro's CPA offices at $86,220 in 2023.