Are you waiting until the last minute to file your taxes? Worried that the filing fees will take a chunk from (or more than) your refund? No one wants to pay upwards from $100 to have someone else do their taxes only to find out the refund is less than the CPA fees! Turbo Tax and H & R Block both offer free online tax programs where you can quickly and easily enter information from our W-2s and see how the tax situation looks. Plug in the basic info from your W-2s and see if you’re getting a big refund. If not, you’ll think twice about hiring a CPA. 
My favorite program is TurboTax. It’s really straightforward and very explanatory about what information I need. Plus, state filing is a breeze because all the info has already been entered. Truly the hardest part about tax time is gathering up the paperwork! These programs do all the calculations and ask all the questions that a CPA would for basic tax situations. They will also guide you if they think you may have a more complicated tax situation.
Turbo Tax and H & R Block only offer the free filing for folks with a “simple return”. If you have a lot of deductions, W-2s, or side income you may need to upgrade to the $20 or $40 programs. You won’t pay until you actually file though- so that’s a nice bonus over buying the software at the store.
However, TaxAct offers free online tax preparation and e-filing for everyone. Yep, you read that right. Regardless of your tax situation it’s free. If you think you may have more than a “simple return” TaxAct may be the way to go for you!
Remember, gathering up all the paperwork really is the hardest step. I did our taxes for 9 years and it’s such a simple process using these programs. Each of them will ask you the specific questions needed to fill out the IRS forms. The past couple of years with multiple state incomes, a rental house, self-employment, childcare and 1 normal W-2 I felt it was best to hand over the taxes to a CPA. Assuming that you don’t have any complicated tax situations (like ours), there’s really no reason to hire an accountant to file your taxes. Do you really want to pay someone else your hard earned money to look through your paperwork and fill in those questions for you?
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