Besides, I've gone to a guy for a few years now, because I've worked in multiple states and collected unemployment outside my home state, and didn't want to get hung up on technicalities. Walk in, hand him my stuff, and 1/2 hour later walk out, with everything done. If I remember right, it cost me either $75 or $100. But I have peace of mind.
It can be worth it for the piece of mind. My first few years after 18 I paid H&R Block, which is funny because as the household math whiz I’d been helping with the tax returns since I was 10 or 11, but all I really did was the math. Now I use software, mostly just to get it done, I buy TurboTax the day after the last inbound form comes in and it’s in the mail the next morning, when I was doing it by hand I could let the paperwork gather dust forever.
But notice you’ve got a pretty complicated return and you’re spending $100, the story says she spent a few hundred. That doesn’t make sense for what she’s saying about her finances, one job, one state, no real property or stocks, that’s a gimme, if HR is charging more than $50 for that they should be sued.