I remember when I had to sit with a tax book, my calculator and a pencil to do taxes. The most important tool though was the super size bottle of Tylenol!

Taxes have been made so much simpler with the invention of tax preparation software but it certainly is not cheaper to buy it and file my taxes electronically. Do you use software or continue to prepare with paper and pencil? How do you prefer to file your forms?

Dollar stretching tip:

Did you know that the IRS site has a listing of E-file partners that offer free or low cost tax filing?

WE do Turbo Tax. Have for a few years. It makes it so much easier and less expensive. Babs 

I'm actually going to be attempting my taxes this year on my own. I have copies from last year to follow and plan to attempt it mainly so dad doesn't have to do it. (He's asked alot this time of year). Kind of helps too that I am taking a course in Income Tax.

I use Turbotax as well. I think I calculated that it will cost us $120 for the software and filing this year.

We've used TurboTax since 1995. I like being in control of my money, and that includes taxes. TurboTax has found more deductions than I would've though of on my own.

Turbo Tax is what we use. When I was in law school, I was part of the Volunteer Tax Assistance Program (I think that is what it was called) and helped people do their taxes for free on paper right at a table in a lobby of a building (student union, govt building). The forms had to be easy (1040 EZ was the most common) and no self-employed (beyond the scope of the training). You can do taxes by pencil and paper with a calculator! But we love the benefits of the software!

With the homestay money etc our taxes are too fussy with deductions so we pay someone to do it.

I've done our own for years. Only used Turbo Tax twice, the first time in 1998 and didn't like it; because there was a glitch in filing I got a free coupon for the next year. Otherwise I wouldn't have used it again. Our taxes are too simple to pay for Turbo or to have someone do it for us. We take the standard deduction and have since our son moved out on his own; we just don't have enough itemized deductions to do it otherwise. For me the federal is easy to do, just follow the numbers on the form by the numbers in the instruction book. On the other hand the Calif. forms always gave me fits, because the wording in the instruction book must have come from a word master. They don't know how to put it in simple terms like the Fed does. E 

When our taxes were simple and basic, we did our own too.   only pay an accountant because we have too.

I use a tax preparer.  I used to use Turbo Tax, but going to grad school and having a second job left me without the time to do proper research on my potential deductions.  Because my second job (Taekwon-Do instructor) is independent contracting, the preparer's fee is deductible as a business expense (as was the cost of the software).  The first year I used the tax preparer, I borrowed a friend's copy of Turbo Tax when she was done to check what I would find (not to file with) - the tax preparer, who is a CPA, found enough more deductions than I did with the software to add over $500 to my refund, way more than the $160 he charged me.  This will be my 3rd year with him instead of Turbo Tax.