Decades ago, I moved and bought a house. My wife had been working and changed jobs and there were special deductions you could take. There were a lot of moving parts so I decided to to a CPA ti make sure we did everything right and got all the deductions we were entitled to. It the first meeting, I started to mention all the deductions I had questions about. The CPA was firmly telling me I couldn't take those deductions. I went back home and double checked and still thought I could and told the CPA that. A few days later I was told the senior guy told the CPA I was right. The CPA found nothing beyond what I already knew about. Basically, I was able to do the job for myself as well as they could. I never paid for a accountant again.
I have been using H&R Block for a long time now and it has worked quite well. I especially like that it can download from TDAmeritrade so I don't have to enter than information manually. There is less chance for manual entry errors.
That said, the results are only as good as the information you provide. They ask about everything possible but it would be easy to miss something. The software is excellent in placing the data in the right places and certifying the math. They also do an audit check to prevent doing things that might attract IRS scrutiny, usually some stupid thing that the IRS doesn't like, like large charitable deductions. Everything is cool if you have the paperwork to back it up. One thing you have to watch out for is certain forms that are delivered later than most others. This year, I received one form at the end of February and another updated form at the beginning of March. If you file too early, your forms don't match the final form the IRS has gotten.
One nice aspect is that it carries over things like W2s received, interest payees, etc. from last year without the dollar values. It requires much less data entry, just the new numbers.
Another plus is that all the federal entries are transferred to the NH Dividends & Interest Tax forms.
Taxes got a lot simpler when the standard deduction got larger last year. It is no longer worthwhile to track and enter my mortgage or property tax or charitable deductions. The standard deduction more than covers it.
Years ago, I got a bigger refund than expected. The government gave me a bigger deduction than I expected for a transaction because I didn't claim something that was reported to the IRS. I think it was buried in a house purchase transaction. The rules for those things are always changing and I didn't realize it was now deductible. I had a similar transaction a couple years prior and it wasn't deductible. Nice surprise.
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