Accountants Earn 120 Million Won on Average... Outpace Lawyers for 5 Consecutive Years

In business income statistics limited to self-employed professionals, accountants have outpaced lawyers for five consecutive years.

According to the "Status of Business Income Reports by Professional Category" submitted by the National Tax Service to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Park Sunghoon on the 14th, for income attributable to 2024, 1,628 people reported business income from accounting services, with total reported business income of 199.2 billion won. The average business income per person was 122 million won. Accounting services have remained in first place among nine professional categories for the past five years. However, the figure edged down from 124 million won in 2023 to 122 million won in 2024.

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Legal services ranked second. In 2024, 6,954 people reported a total of 736.6 billion won, resulting in an average business income per person of 106 million won. The average business income per person in legal services was 109 million won in 2020, but it fell below 100 million won to 97 million won in 2023 before rising back above 100 million won in 2024.

The higher average business income of self-employed accountants compared with lawyers is seen as being influenced by differences in the business start-up structure of each profession. A large share of accountants are affiliated with major accounting firms, and even when they open their own practices, many do so only after securing a certain level of client base and revenue structure before going independent. By contrast, for lawyers, if they fail to enter a major law firm after graduating from law school and obtaining their qualification, many open their own offices immediately, and this group of early-stage solo practitioners is analyzed to be a factor pulling down the average.

For income attributable to 2024, tax services ranked third, with 10,894 people reporting a total of 895.8 billion won, resulting in an average business income per person of 82 million won. For patent attorney services, 1,171 people reported 94.2 billion won, with an average of 80 million won per person.

The gap between professions was also large. For labor consulting services, the average business income per person was 25 million won; for architectural services, 30 million won; for legal affairs services (judicial scriveners), 32 million won; for appraisal services, 39 million won; and for customs services, 60 million won.

These statistics are based on comprehensive income tax filings for income attributable to 2020 through 2024, and do not include salaries of professionals employed by corporations.

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