The difference between using tax software (free to pay) and a tax preparer (HRBlock-style to CPA/Tax Attorney) is going to rely on how well you know the ins and outs of YOUR tax situation -- Consumer tax software (not the pro stuf David uses) is designed to basically fit the needs of the average tax-payer, not someone all wrapped up in odd situations -- The human knows what questions to ask and the software, although it may ask a LOT of questions, may not even be in the right ballpark.

Also, the human pretty much knows what will fly, what will not, and what *might* fly.

I just happened to look at free Turbo Tax, because it was in an HP ad I got, and it won't even do a 1040 with Schedule A, just a 1040EZ.

The one I just got through using, free Tax Act, had a glitch in it that somehow had me making a vehicle donation of $81 -- I just couldn't get the software to shake loose of it! Since my standard deductions happened to exceed my income this year, I decided to just go that route and let the flawed program just print out my return nice and neatly.

Had I not been paying so much attention to my cancers this year, I would have brought some of my tax-deferred IRA investments out and let my itemized deductions "shelter" that income, but I didn't. I won't let that happen this year, because I expect the deductions will be about the same.