[hedora]

Are you unemployed, and therefore not obligated to file? The flowchart for that takes about 10 minutes. For anything more complicated, I don’t see how you can possibly complete, review and file your federal and state returns in 10 minutes.

For one thing, it takes more than 10 minutes just to buy a copy of TurboTax.

I typically budget 4-5 hours to fill out the taxes, and give myself a few days to find any missing forms, or call tech support for random corner cases that like to arise.

I also spend at least 2-3 hours a year dealing with donation receipts, etc.

I still regularly either overpay by 5-6 figures, then need to file an amended return, and/or get a (usually mistaken) letter from the IRS or FTB demanding more money.

If that doesn’t happen, I often get mailed a check refunding money with (taxable) interest because they took too long to process my return, which causes direct deposit to fall through.

[jonas21]

For me, it was typically:

1. Log in to TurboTax and click through a few welcome screens (1 min)

2. Enter employer and AGI - TurboTax pulls in the rest of the W2 (1 min)

3. Enter bank credentials - TurboTax pulls in interest income (1 min)

4. Enter brokerage account credentials - TurboTax pulls in dividends and capital gains (1 min)

5. Enter charitable contributions manually (2 min)

6. Click "no" to some tax situations that don't apply (2 min)

7. Click populate state return from federal, then click "no" to a few more questions (2 min)

8. Enter credit card number and e-file info (1 min)

Total: 11 minutes

I don't see how it can take you more than 10 minutes to pay for TurboTax. You just enter the credit card number on the screen where it asks you for it. And you don't need donation receipts to file your return. If you're audited, you might have to find them (mine are all in my email), but audits are rare.

[javagram]

If you have to deal with “donation receipts” you have an unusual tax situation.

Most people (87%)[0] are better off taking the standard deduction rather than itemizing. Taking the standard deduction, your donation receipts don’t matter.

If you have just W-2 income then filing through tax software is very quick. Not sure if it’s 10 minutes or 30 minutes but not that much time.

[0] https://taxfoundation.org/blog/standard-deduction-itemized-d...

[hedora]

The chart in the thing you linked says most people with 90th percentile income should itemize, and that there’s a greater than 10% chance you should itemize if you make median income or greater.

Of course, figuring out if you should itemize requires the same amount of paperwork as actually itemizing.

Anyway, even when I was a student with nothing but W2 income, I still had to find my W2, and get a 1099-INT for my student checking account. That took more than 10 minutes.

Before that, I had to figure out how to figure the tax on my high school income, which also took more than 10 minutes.