[FireBeyond]

Or you can get the worst of both worlds (looking at you H+R Block), where you pay accountant prices for someone to walk through what is essentially a customized version of something like Turbo Tax.

When I moved to the US I used them, once. I had just arrived, was working from home, had bought a hybrid vehicle, my spouse was a student.

I/we literally sat there with someone entirely clueless as she read questions off a screen.

"Okay, for Item X, how much do you want to claim?"

"What can I claim?"

"What do you mean?"

"As in, what is claimable, what isn't?"

"I'm not sure."

"So why am I paying you to prepare my taxes?"

[smsm42]

Yeah, the shops like H&R looks like people there literally are just typing in numbers into forms on screen with zero added value. I got the same impression when I talked to them, fortunately I discovered it before paying them. OTOH, there are real professionals which gave me excellent advice over the years and saved me a bunch of money. They are usually independent CPAs and not part of any large franchise like H&R. Otherwise I just use TurboTax - no reason to pay anybody for typing I could do myself.