Honestly, most first-year preparers price by copying whoever trained them. That usually means per form, and per form quietly tells your client that your value is typing.
But the hardest returns you touch are rarely the ones with the most forms. They are the ones with the messiest facts, and per-form pricing pays you nothing for untangling them.
What per-form pricing gets wrong
- It prices output instead of judgment.
- It penalizes you for a clean, well-organized return that took real thinking.
- It makes every added schedule a negotiation instead of a stated term.
- It makes it nearly impossible to raise prices later without a fight.
A structure that holds up
- A base fee that reflects the work of doing any return properly.
- Clear tiers tied to complexity, written down before you quote.
- Stated add-ons for states, entities and prior-year cleanup.
- A minimum you will not go below, decided before anyone asks.
Decide your floor before the season. You will not decide it well at nine at night in the middle of March.
And write your fee structure down where a client can see it. Preparers who publish structure get argued with far less than preparers who quote from memory.