What Does a Tax Manager Make in Boston? The Median Posted Range Runs $111K to $150K

Across the roughly thirty tax manager openings in the Boston area in our job data right now, the median posted range runs from about $111,000 at the bottom to about $150,000 at the top, and only five of them leave the number off entirely. That's a pretty rare level of honesty for a market this senior, and it means you can price yourself before the first screening call instead of after it.

I pulled the Boston slice of our database because tax manager is the seat a lot of senior accountants and tax seniors are quietly aiming at, and honestly I get why - it's the first title where your name goes on the work. What I'm finding is a market with a wide spread, a heavy firm presence, and almost nothing remote, so let's walk through what that actually means for you.

What does a tax manager make in Boston?

Across the postings that show pay, the middle of the pack lands near $137,500 if you take the midpoint of each range, with a typical floor around $111,000 and a typical ceiling around $150,000. The extremes run from an $80,000 starting point on a tax operations manager role at a wealth firm up to a $266,000 ceiling on a PricewaterhouseCoopers manager range.

Do not read that $266,000 as your number. Big firm ranges are wide because one posting covers several levels and several offices, so the PwC range of $99,000 to $266,000 on three separate manager openings is really a statement about the whole band, and the bottom figure is what tells you where they'd start someone new to the title. The floor is the number I'd anchor on, and I'd treat the ceiling as the outer edge of what a very senior hire in a very expensive specialty might see.

If you want to see how that step up compares with the rungs below it, our breakdown of what each step up the accounting ladder pays shows how much of the jump happens right at manager, and the Los Angeles tax pay piece is a useful comparison for a second coastal market.

Why can you see the pay in Boston tax postings?

Massachusetts has a pay transparency law that took effect on October 29, 2025, and it requires employers with 25 or more employees in the state to put a good-faith pay range in a job posting, including postings placed through third parties, for jobs whose primary place of work is in Massachusetts, as Greenberg Traurig's summary of the law lays out. That's why a market full of mid-sized firms and corporates suddenly shows you numbers.

Here's the counterweight, and it matters: good faith is a loose standard, and a range can legally be enormous. The Boston postings that do show pay mostly give you a usable band, and a few give you a band so wide it tells you very little, so use the law as a starting point for your research and keep the skepticism. We track how this plays out state by state in our look at which states make accounting pay visible.

Who is hiring tax managers in Boston?

About half of the openings sit at firms and the rest sit inside companies, and the firm side is dominated by one name. BDO alone has seven tax manager postings in the Boston data, spread across private client services, ASC 740 and corporate tax, nonprofit, and alternative investments, with ranges that run from $90,000 up to $150,000 and a family of experienced manager seats at $130,000 to $145,000. RSM has a family office tax manager role at $95,400 to $180,400, CliftonLarsonAllen has a tax manager or director seat at $116,000 to $187,000, and Wolf & Company has a private client group role at $120,000 to $160,000. CBIZ and Grant Thornton also have openings but don't show a range, which is a good reason to ask early. You can browse the whole layer in our accounting firm directory.

The corporate side is more interesting than I expected. Rapid7 posts a tax manager role at $111,400 to $150,700, Cognex in Natick posts $120,000 to $150,000, Repligen in Waltham posts $130,000 to $172,500, Novogradac posts $129,000 to $159,000, and Longroad Energy has a hybrid seat at $144,000 to $175,000. That's software, machine vision, bioprocessing, and renewable energy, which tells you Boston tax work runs through its industries as much as through its firms. Boston Scientific's Marlborough tax operations manager role comes in at $106,800, a flat figure rather than a range.

One thing I'd check before you get attached to any specific posting: the same job often shows up more than once under slightly different location strings, so what looks like a deep market is a bit shallower than the raw count suggests. We strip out the recruiter duplicates and link straight to the employer's own career page on the Audit Friendly job board, and you can compare it against the Boston auditor salary numbers if you're deciding between audit and tax.

Are there remote tax manager jobs in Boston?

Basically none. Not one of the Boston tax manager openings in our data is flagged remote, and the one that mentions flexibility calls itself hybrid, so plan on being in an office a few days a week. If remote is a hard requirement, widen the search beyond the metro: the remote tax jobs page is the place to start, and our look at whether remote tax accountant jobs pay more than in-office ones will tell you what you're trading.

What I'd do if I wanted a Boston tax manager seat

Pick a specialty before you pick a firm. Look at those titles - private client, ASC 740, property tax, R&D credit, alternative investments, family office - and notice that almost none of them say plain tax manager. The postings are hiring for a lane, and if you can say which lane in the first sentence of your cover note you're already ahead of the people sending a generic resume to every BDO opening.

Then use the visible ranges on purpose. Find three postings in your lane, write down the floors, and walk into the conversation knowing the number you'd accept rather than waiting to be told one. If your lane is the provision, spend an evening with our piece on using AI on ASC 740 disclosures and build yourself a small provision-tie-out helper, because showing up with something you built tends to beat another bullet about being detail oriented. Whether you need the CPA for a given seat is its own question, and the data on CPA requirements is worth a look before you spend another weekend on it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a tax manager make in Boston?

In the Boston openings in our data that show pay, the median posted range runs from about $111,000 to about $150,000, with a midpoint near $137,500. Individual postings range from an $80,000 floor on an operations-flavored role to a $266,000 ceiling on a large firm band.

Does Massachusetts require employers to post a salary range?

Yes, for employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts, since October 29, 2025. The range has to be what the employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay, and it applies to postings placed through third parties as well.

Which firms hire tax managers in Boston?

BDO has the most openings in our data, followed by PwC, RSM, CliftonLarsonAllen, Wolf & Company, CBIZ, and Grant Thornton. Corporate employers include Rapid7, Cognex, Repligen, Novogradac, Boston Scientific, and Longroad Energy.

Can you work remotely as a tax manager in Boston?

Almost never. None of the Boston tax manager openings in our data is listed as remote, and the flexible one is hybrid.

Do you need a CPA to be a tax manager?

Most manager seats at firms expect one, and corporate roles are a bit more flexible. Check the individual posting, since the requirement varies a lot by employer and specialty.

Every job-market figure here comes from our own database of live accounting and finance postings, refreshed daily, and reflects the Boston area as of October 2026. See what's open in Boston right now.