I started using tax software 25 years ago when I went to all of the local libraries and couldn’t find the tax forms that I needed. I keep using it because the number of tax forms has increased and it costs me too much to send all of those forms in the mail. So, I kill three birds with one tax software package; I efile and don’t mail my returns anymore, I don’t need to locate the forms that I need to file and it identifies the forms that I need, and it does a better job anticipating next year’s tax debt than my spreadsheet. All and all, income tax is still theft.
I despise doing taxes every year.
In this day and age, we should not have to do this.
If we have employers and accountants for self employed, they taxes we pay should be automatic and that is the end of it.
But of course, the purpose of the tax code is not just to raise revenue, which it does, but to control behavior of the people.
Which it does.
Remember, this country was founded by a revolution against ‘taxes’..................
Similar story here. Early '90s. My wife was doing daycare in our apartment for someone that happened to be a tax accountant. We were trying to claim business use of home, and one of the schedules for that required us to attach form ####. This claim was going to save us hundreds of dollars.
The library, which had every form imaginable, didn't have this one. Our friend the tax accountant couldn't find it either. We ended up having to write the IRS to get a copy of the form.
And the killer? On this form was a list of questions that determined certain qualifications for the deduction. Things like "do you use alternative fuels in a farm vehicle?" Or "Is your home included in the such-and-such act from the Louisiana purchase?" We ended up answering no to the 20-odd questions on the form, which carried over a zero to the "business use of home" schedule.
Intuit sold a tax package (I think it was them) that we started using from that point on.