My background is that I am a CPA who worked for H&R Block for 18 years. This is my first year not working for them so I have no personal interest in answering your question. Over the years I have had to handle many widows and widowers who had no idea how to handle their taxes. Very often they brought in every document they had EXCEPT the one I needed. I think that your money would be very well spent by going to Block at least for the first year. The Tax Cut program is Blocks and they can import the data from the prior year so they know what they are looking for from the prior year. Bring in the last two years of returns and have them check them for you as they may find errors and can amend them for you. I almost always found errors that got people a bigger refund than what they had to pay me in fees. If you do decide to do it yourself, I'd suggest that you bring the finished return and your source documents to a local Block office and have it checked. I never charged for this and you may get lucky and find a like-minded preparer. In either case, I would suggest calling and making an appointment. ALWAYS avoid the last week of Jan and the first week of Feb as that is their busiest time of the season. If you can wait until March it is the slowest time. I'd ask for the most experienced preparer in the office. Good luck!

I did specifically ask last year (prepared by H&R Block) and they had no advice for me. The office wasn't particularly busy at the time, but I felt like we were being herded like cattle. Even funnier was that I had done them myself using their online program, but was concerned over the small refund amount and wanted to go into the storefront to have them check it all over. They didn't have to enter a single bit of info themselves (they were able to pull it up from what I'd already done) but that didn't stop them from charging the full amount, lol, and still had no advice for us. We're ending up owing this year, so I'm not sure what we're doing wrong, but I surely won't use H&R Block to find out, hehe!

Mine have been a headache this year. DD made a mistake on hers (she claimed herself and shouldn't have), so we've had to do 2 amended returns and now have to mail in DH's and mine (you can't efile when there's been an amended return). I had questions for the state ones, but the first day I called there was a 45 minute wait.. the second time I had a 25 minute wait.. kept checking updates on the time left.. then I got hung up on. I went ahead and sent the forms in - if there is a mistake they can send them back.

As I said ... ... if you're interested in giving out interest-free loans ... ... let me know where the line-up starts, so that I can get into it before it gets too long. I won't borrow to invest in consumer items, as that means that I eat stuff this year that I won't pay for till next year, which means a reduction in next year's income due to paying for this year's eating. Not only that - I have to pay rent to the lender of the money for the use of his/her money. However - I may borrow to invest and expect to be doing so, soon, as the markets stay low. I've made three purchases in recent months using cash and have another to do soon. Plus I'm being forced out of one holding, which includes Canada's largest phone co., as it's being sold and taken private. That will free up some more cash in a few months. My bank told me a few months ago that they'd charge me prime rate, 6.25% on a fully-secured (by certificates of mutual funds and stocks) Line of Credit. I calculate that I can borrow to invest in high-quality stocks at almost no net cost. As interest on loans for investment is deductible, if I'm in 25% tax bracket, that reduces my effective cost to just under 4.75%. Core stocks, the kind that I'd planned to use for retirement, often pay about 3% dividend, which has been (Canadian) tax-advantaged for years and just became more so, meaning that I'll have about 2.5% in hand after the tax is paid ... which reduces my effective cost to just under 2.25%. Suppose I borrowed $10,000.00 15 years ago, agreeing to pay interest-only, and had done that (which I don't like doing - I want to pay down some of the principal as I go along ... I'm using this calculation for illustration). If I went in to pay off the loan now, how much would I have to pay? Right - exactly $10,000.00. And it will buy a lot less now than 15 years ago when I borrowed it. With inflation running at 2 -3%, that means that I borrowed the money at just about no cost. A couple of days ago, the bank says that they'll charge me at prime interest rate, now, 5.25%. Deduct tax at 25% is about 1.3%, moving down to slightly under 4%. As above, I receive about 2.5% after-tax from the stocks in which I invest, taking me down to just under 1.5% net cost. But inflation is running at 2 - 3%, and some expect it to go higher, somewhat due to increased fuel costs, that affects most stuff that we buy, incl. strawberries from Mexico in January). So it looks as though I'm gaining, at these rates. Suppose you put $10,000. into the bank 15 years ago, enticed (seduced?) by the bank's highly touted guarantee that, apart from the rent on the money, they'd repay every dollar that you'd lent to them, at the end of the contract. They never mention the corollary to that guarantee - that they won't pay one dollar more, either. Unfortunately for you U.S. folks, the inflation rat went into the bank and chewed off a corner of every dollar that you'd lent to the bank, every year that they'd held it. It'd have to be $5.00 bills for us Canadians, as our Loonies and Toonies are made of long-lasting, rat-tooth-hating metal. Actually, the rat wouldn't find your money in the bank - they lent out about $8.00 for every dollar that everyone deposited. Money in their till is like dollar bills in your wallet/under your mattress - they ain't workin'. So the bank took your $10,000. 15 years ago and lent it to me. Now, you want your money ... and I come to the bank to pay off my $10,000.00 loan ... that they then pay to you. I paid my loan with lower-valued dollars, and you got the same number of lower-valued dollars. I gained from inflation - you lost! Have a weekend that includes some effort expended to learn how money works - an excellent hobby - that pays well! ole joyful