NAICS 541211, 541213 · California overview

Accounting & Tax Preparation Firms in Lake County

Lake County had 8 Accounting establishments in 2023, ranking 43 of 50 California counties and accounting for 0.1% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
8
Rank 43 of 50 counties
Employees
48
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$1.8M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
1.2
67,772 residents

More recent reading

BLS QCEW, 2026Q1

The figures above are County Business Patterns, which carries the size distribution but runs about two years behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes quarterly, so this is the same industry roughly 3 years later. The two count different universes, Census counts establishments with paid employees in the March pay period and BLS counts worksites covered by unemployment insurance during the quarter, so the numbers are not directly comparable and either can be the larger.

Establishments
12
2026Q1
Employment
46
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$729
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+9.1%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.05 location quotient. Accounting is about as concentrated in Lake County as it is nationally.

Computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not derived here. Above 1.0 means the industry is a larger share of local employment than of national employment.

Establishments by size

Employee-count distribution for Accounting in Lake County.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-4337.5%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net decline of 11.1% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
20209n/a
20217-2
20228+1
202380

How this market compares

Lake County against every other county in California on the same measure. The median excludes places under 2,000 residents, where per-capita figures are arithmetically true but analytically useless.

Thinly served1.2 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 2.4

Well below the state median. Either a genuine gap in provision or a market served from somewhere nearby. Worth checking the neighbouring places below before drawing a conclusion.

Vs state median
-51%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#43
of 50 counties
Rank by density
#49
of 50 ranked
Since 2020
-11%
Change in establishments

Density compares accounting & tax preparation firms provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Lake is more consolidated than California as a whole: fewer micro-operators and a larger share of businesses with real headcount. Fewer targets, but the ones that exist are more likely to be financeable.

Share of establishmentsLakeCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer37.5%69.5%-32.0%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target0.0%27.7%-27.7%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing0.0%10.9%-10.9%

What acquirers look at

The most acute succession crisis of any professional service category. A large share of partners are past traditional retirement age with no internal successor. Annual recurring compliance revenue with exceptional retention.

Cities in Lake

The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.

Other industries in Lake

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns. Establishment counts, employment and annual payroll by NAICS. Retrieved 2026-09-08.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2026Q1). Quarterly establishment counts and employment for employers covered by unemployment insurance. Retrieved 2026-09-08.