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Notes -
Yeah, here's the latest Propublica article on the topic with back links to their earlier reporting: https://www.propublica.org/article/what-to-know-about-turbotax-before-you-file-taxes
Like other replies, I also do my own taxes. But I'm under no illusion this is a realistic option for most people.
One issue is that the IRS very threatening about any mistakes bringing very serious consequences, including jail time. In practice, they do tend to be understanding and work with people to correct mistakes. But many people don't know that... and that might not be the experience poorer people have. Tax prep companies provide legal guarantees that mistakes are their problem not yours.
There's no reason (other than lobbying by the makers of TurboTax) for the IRS to not send you everything they know, which should cover your entire tax situation if you just have W-2 jobs, investments through a brokerage firm, and a mortgage, all of which are already reported to the IRS and if you omit or typo any of the information that was sent to both you and the IRS, then you're in trouble. In practice, this "trouble" usually means the IRS contacts you saying you made a typo, they fixed it, and here's your recomputed tax amount, but you did have to sign saying they're well within their rights to throw you in jail instead.
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