[kccqzy]

Any person smart enough to work in tech (like the majority of HN community) can teach themselves how to understand that supposedly confusing language and file taxes themselves.

Any person who do not is just valuing their time more than the cost of tax preparation services. FWIW, I only spend about four hours every year doing my taxes myself. Which is less than the time needed to research a tax preparation service, communicate with them, and then check the results.

[sershe]

+1 on that... I had a complicated ISO options situation once, and that was the only time I used a tax advisor to help me take the return over the finish line. The only mistake in my taxes was in what tax advisor did; I was able to figure it out by reading the official IRS doc a week after filing. Luckily it didn't change the amount owed, the income was just in a completely wrong field according to the doc.

The docs are pretty well written...

[Nimitz14]

Do you have investments in stocks and index funds?

[kccqzy]

I trade stocks, ETFs, options (mostly section 1256 contracts which are easy to report), and I have rental property.