If you just have W2 income and some straightforward investments, there's really no reason to have a CPA other than convenience...but even then your return should take you less than an hour

I like doing our own taxes so I understand where the cutoffs are for brackets, deductions, etc. We switched to a CPA for a couple years and found they missed some home improvement deductions that should have been applied so I switched back to doing them myself. Same reason I invest myself (in VXUS/VTI) vs paying a financial advisor.

lol no. A W2 is about as easy as it gets. It’s just plug and chug and if your employer uses ADP or a few other payroll platforms the form will literally import for you so you don’t even have to do that much.

Every year I have to deal with a K-1, some investment income, backdoor Roth conversions, and itemized deductions, and I still use TurboTax for all of it. The software handles it easily, and the whole process takes me like 90 minutes a year? At most? And then I’m able to catch errors and generate a much closer estimate for my next year’s taxes (we pay quarterly) because I’m the one actually looking at it.

I mentioned this in another thread recently, but a few years ago my law firm’s CPAs miscoded pretax retirement contributions on all the partner K-1s and listed them as a nondeductible expense. I noticed because I do my own taxes and pay attention to every number that gets entered. Do you know who didn’t notice the error? Literally every CPA my partners hired to do their taxes for them. I ended up being the one to report it to firm leadership, and we all got corrected K-1s.

We hired one when we got our first K1. Since then we’ve also had years where it made sense to itemize, which was helpful to have a professional there for. Cost of our local guy was pretty reasonable for the peace of mind and it’s something where long relationships add value (things like tracking basis) so seemed like a no brainer.

Dumb analogy my wife and I use for things like this: it’s like changing your oil. We used to do it, we could still do it, but we’ve got a mechanic we can trust who can find things that we overlook. For us, it’s not that we don’t trust ourselves, but are happy to pay someone (who we know isn’t a scammer) to look beyond the task at hand.

I don’t know if you’d get that level of service with an hourly CPA, but I think it’s not impossible to justify, even if your taxes seem straightforward.

I’m like you and do it myself…. For years.

Just try freetaxusa A game changer. Cheap, reliable and with an very easy interface

I am a CPA that does taxes (not all of us do). I have found that level of income is rarely a factor. Complexity of income sometimes (I have had prospects that can easily DIY their returns with rentals or self-employment).

The main reason I tell people that they should hire it out is whether or not they can look at the end return, read it, and have some idea of what they are reading to know that they did it right. TurboTax is a legit product, but it's garbage in garbage out. I have some clients who just have one W-2 that are so lost about how taxes (even money in general, for that matter) work that they should never DIY.

Other reasons that people hire me: the peace of mind of someone who does this all year long, me circling the wagon to make sure that it looks complete (I asked my clients if it looks like something's missing based on last year's return, etc.).

If you do hire it out, one of the most annoying questions tax pros get: "what do you need from me?" We need a current year version of everything you pulled out last year to do your taxes. This part is your job. Don't make us your secretaries, your fees go up more for that. We don't know where you work, bank, invest, etc unless you tell us. So do the work to go look for tax forms in all of those places.

wow..so much lobbying for turbotax and not much talk about way cheaper option called “fretaxusa” for w2 job woth simple investments 1099 forms. Fuck TT to oblivion.

We’ve been using a CPA for almost two decades now. Probably started using one earlier than most because our taxes are complicated with my wife’s business and they’ve only gotten more complicated over the years. 

Last year we switched accountants because we were using one quite far away from where we now live (and who was hinting at retirement) and wanted someone closer. That was a painful process since it felt like starting from scratch, but I know this year will be much easier. Having someone you trust who knows your finances well is pretty valuable and if you can cultivate a relationship early on it definitely helps down the line. 

I only use a CPA because my boyfriend's company pays to have my taxes done with their accountant. I would probably still be filing myself otherwise. 

If it’s a vanilla return (as it appears it is) you can do your own taxes. It isn’t rocket science.

Full transparency though: I am a CPA myself and even I pay a CPA to do my taxes.

I go to a tax firm, I don’t think they’re CPAs, but it’s not like an H&R Block. They cost about 50% more than the paid turbo tax, I dump files in their cloud, we talk on the phone for about a half hour and I’m done. They do a great job and it’s super convenient.

Hire a good CPA. You will never regret it.

There was a year when my wife and I moved states mid-year, bought a new house, had a baby, started renting out our old house, and had foreign company RSUs vest. I first used a CPA the year after muddling through all that with Turbo Tax.

If it’s a W2 only then you don’t need anything. My accountant says it’s not about how much you make but where the money comes from.

If it’s a trust, investment accounts, etc

I got a CPA when Turbo Tax F’d up my return in regards to selling our home. We sold our home for a small profit but we were eligible for a capital gains exclusion. I followed all the steps on Turbo Tax for this sale they didn’t file the correct form. I received a notification from the IRS almost 2 years after we had filed stating I owed $90k in taxes and fees(I didn’t actually owe this). It wasn’t a formal audit and I was able to talk to them and get it straightened out but it took months and stressed me out a lot even though I knew it was a mistake. I also started my own business right as these notices came so I was getting a CPA but if I had stayed W2 we were going to pay for a CPA anyway.

I haven’t. It’s W2 income and simple investment strategies. Making more money hasn’t made the situation more complex.

We didn’t hire one until we had a retirement account error that it was beyond me to untangle (my husband exceeded the limit and did some other weird things without talking to me when clawing it back). Now we stick with it because we like our CPA and it makes our lives easier, although I could probably going back to doing them fairly easily.

We did a CPA the year we had all of these things happen simultaneously. Sold a house in one state, bought a house in a different state, got a substantial inheritance, lost a job, got a new job, and had large investment returns. It was too much for my little brain to handle. But now we like them and are happy to pay them the $750 it is to prepare us every year. They answer our questions through the year and are very helpful.

When I started a business. Just w2 was fine for TurboTax as others have said. But now my CPA my s-corp taxes and a bunch of real estate stuff involving depreciation that I don't know how to track. So it all just depends on your complexity.

I was convinced that I needed a CPA for some reason. Every year, even if I use a CPA, I put everything in TurboTax as well just to verify the difference. There’s typically a very minimal difference with us owing more when we use a CPA (on top of their higher fees). Next year, I’m probably just going back to TurboTax. It’s actually great.

When I got married to an independent consultant with a kid, bought a house, had our own kid, sold a house, and got an inheritance from overseas all in one year 😭

I am bad at taxes. When I switched to a CPA I started getting more back in my return & it was a good CYA for mistakes (which I had apparently been making on Turbo Tax).

I personally think everyone should work with a CPA over turbo tax.

Edit: W2 + various investment accounts & lots of moving between states in the US for me. So a fairly straightforward tax situation, but I guess complex enough that I think a CPA is a big benefit.

I went to a CPA when the cost became less then the time I spent on turbotax. I figure my free time is worth 5X what my work time is worth.

We got a CPA very early in our marriage, we had simple taxes and low incomes. We kept owing money at the end of the year even though we would adjust our withholdings. We knew we were doing something wrong, switched to a CPA and haven’t looked back!

I have a mix of 1099 and w2. And I’m lazy.

No need to get one if your taxes are simple. I moved to using a CPA when I started investing in startups and other things outside of traditional stocks, and so my tax situation became more complex. Complexity should be the trigger, not income level.

Whether or not you need accounting help has little to do with income level. It's about complexity.

If all your income is from basic stuff like salary and stock there's not really much to do.

I find basic accounting to be simple, so I've never used TurboTax. Early in my career I used a CPA and wasn't impressed. They were good people, but they appeared to specialize in filling out forms.

I started using the services of a FA after meeting people with assets, who have a different outlook on finance. A good FA can show you what you don't know.

I hired a CPA when I started obtaining multiple properties. We've kept the same firm for quite a few years now. Our tax picture has grown in complexity through RSU's, etc, so we've kept them. If our income ever streamlines or simplifies, I will probably just do it myself.

It started because my business grew too complex for me to wrangle, and tax strategy became necessary. The CPA throws in our personal for free which is simple again with just w-2, k-1s, and a few 1099s.

If I were just w-2, it wouldn’t cross my mind to do anything else but TurboTax.

I have one now to talk to once a year and drop my info off.

We are estate planning and have multiple trusts to plan towards in a decade or so.

Talking 529s, retirement and the like as a normal W2 employee isnt a stretch. Its nice piece of mind for the once a year meet and $250 charge.

They print everything up, give potential audit advice, we talk recent tax code changes and so on.

I started using a CPA after the H&R Block accountant messed my taxes up and I didn’t do that much better w turbo tax the following year.

2019- received a bill for $150,000+ after the H&R Block lady handled my taxes (my friend who used the same a lady had a similar experience that year).

2020 - I used TurboTax and paid like $1,400 in taxes. No big deal

2021 - I started using a CPA who did a quick review of the previous years filing. She found a simple mistake that caused me to overpay by $5k the previous year. She got it squared away and made sure that was returned to me when she filed 2021 taxes.

Things have evolved for me since 2019 and now I have a little bit more that goes into my returns but I trust she knows what she’s doing. I’ve used her ever since and she has yet to let me down. I usually pay $500-600 per year filed and she is available to answer questions/ assist throughout the year when necessary.

TL/DR: do it. Worth every penny!

I would use TurboTax still in your situation. And that is what I did until I got more complicated tax situation.

TurboTax also has CPA You can ask questions and they do a review.

Maybe if you start locking or corp.

For a family even with multi incomes TurboTax will "listen" you better

Switched to CPA when I started my S corp. No need for one if you’re just W2 without complicated investments.

When I started my LLC

$600k HHI and use TurboTax.

No home, but have alternative investments / K1’s, backdoor ira, charitable deductions, kids, etc.

Probably would only get a CPA if I started my own business. And even then, not sure I’d need one. Cheap CPA’s are going to be worse than me. And good ones are so expensive I might as well just learn it myself.

As others have said, most tax savings come from doing things before the tax year is set. Tax loss harvesting, maximizing tax advantaged accounts, deferring income when close to going up brackets (NQDC, making a LOC for consulting income, etc.), etc. Once you’re filling out your taxes not much you can do.

And no matter what you do, some years you just get punched in the face. I had a bunch of AI stocks up 1000-1500% I had to take the capital gains on this year , because the valuations were crazy and I ended up with too high of an allocation into them (as a percent of my total portfolio) due to their growth. Which also pushed me out of the enhanced SALT deduction range.

We have 2 W2s, min-maxed tax-advantaged accounts, stock sales, a DAF, a house, and a tenant who lives in our basement. It's all straightforward on FreeTaxUSA (fuck TurboTax lobbying). A CPA we were recommended by a friend didn't know what a DAF was so unless you have the ability to really evaluate the knowledge of a prospective CPA you're not really better off. No one cares more about your money than you do.

It took like 10 hours to learn, so it's not free, but it definitely pays off in the long run to spend time once rather than spending hundreds of dollars per year.

Most of my time with taxes now is spending finding the forms and storing them all together, which I'd have to do anyway if I had a CPA.

Free Tax USA, FTW !

I've tried a CPA, had to go back and fix several mistakes they made that I only noticed after filing (ie they couldn't be arsed to actually read the RSU paperwork I sent them and got me double-taxed on them). In my opinion, you're best off being the expert on your own financial situation. I'll reconsider if I ever go down the small business owner route

I've also switched from TT to FreeTaxUSA - TT charges almost as much as a CPA these days, it seems. And I just hate to give money to an organization that lobbies for tax code to stay convoluted.

As a CPA I would say you are right - many people who hire a CPA (or an EA, or a tax preparer) do not need one. There are also many people who fuck up their return every year but think because they’ve “never been audited” that they’re doing everything right.

A good CPA is kind of like insurance. Maybe you will never need the full extent of their knowledge, but it’s nice to know that you can lean on them if you need to. Say one year you inherit a large sum of money from a grandparent who lives out of the country - there’s a very specific form that may apply that isn’t common knowledge. Or, say you move out of state, and the state you’re leaving challenges the date of your move and tries to assess tax on income earned following that move (CA loves doing this).

Ideally your investment in a tax professional gives you 1) some of your time back and 2) peace of mind. Whether it’s necessary or not depends on many factors.

TLDR: it depends.

It comes down to how complex your taxes are, not how much you make. I used turbo tax for years when all I had was a W2, RSUs, 401k, IRA, and stock investments. However, even that took hours to complete. Arguably I should have started using a CPA sooner to save time and stress.

Now that I have a lot of real estate, many bank accounts in addition to all of the above, I started using a CPA. Never going back to doing it myself. Saves time and stress during tax season, which is worth a lot.

When my spouse went from W-2 to K-1. Things got complicated quickly and our accountant is worth every cent we pay him.

We switched to a CPA for the first time last year because our tax return became more complex (nanny on payroll, buying/ selling foreign property, etc). It wasn’t an income threshold, but more of a complexity issue and making sure we were leveraging the appropriate tax breaks/ filing strategies.

I’ve done CPA for awhile and then switched to TurboTax. We’re high earners but have simple finances like you, and it actually gave us more peace of mind to do it ourselves. We’ve been audited before (not necessarily the fault of the CPAs) or had to amend our returns (fault of one CPA) so we tried out TurboTax… and then saw a lot of benefit to being forced to be intimately knowledgeable about the law and our own income. We weren’t when we outsourced it.

Once your taxes are no longer "automated". W2, brokerage investments, etc are all fine, they will send you a document end of year.

Business income, 1099s, Real estate, international holdings, etc. and things begin to get confusing. You need to generate most of the documents that later become part of your personal return.

For me however, I got one as soon as I felt I needed to "optimize" my tax situation. The idea was I'd consult him at the start of the year on how to do things, and set a plan in motion based on what I wanted to achieve. Yea, somethings seem obvious, but when they do a full calculation against your taxes (Even as a w2) it gives you a new perspective. That 6% interest rate seems high till you realize when you deduct it against your taxes it shaves 30% or something off. Same with 401K placements, IRA, etc. All the numbers look different when you account for taxes.

I didn't use TurboTax but another product from a competitor. I always paid for them to double check everything, and one year they clearly missed something. I went back and forth, had them do a second review with another accountant, and they still came back and said I was wrong.

So I finally just switched to a local accountant that came highly recommended. Within 5 mins of reviewing, he said they were wrong and the mistake was worth around $2,000.

So now I've switched to the local accountant. He costs about $100 more, but it's much quicker to upload my documents to him, and he's more accurate. 

You have a simple tax return.  The biggest lift of doing your return will be pulling together all the documentation.  And you’ll be doing that yourself whether you have a CPA do it or a software like TurboTax or freetaxusa 

I considered bringing on a CPA when I bought a rental property.  But ultimately the fee seemed too high to be worth it.  I figured it would be one hard year learning how to do taxes for rental properties and then I’d be confident doing it myself.

That’s W2 + one rental property.  So still all things considered a simple return.

If you own private businesses I think the CPA really starts to shine.  Maybe a combo of a book keeper for routine and a CPA for planning

Income has nothing to do with it, it’s about complexity. I filed my own taxes with TurboTax up to about $400K/year and only went to a CPA after made a few investments that issued K-1s and then the final nail was an 8938 which, at least at the time they didn’t support and I also didn’t want to screw around with that.

If you’re a W-2 your CPA is just going to send you a tax prep packet that’s nearly identical to the TurboTax wizard, you’ll literally fill in the TurboTax dialogs for him and then he charges you, everything is imported electronically now so there’s usually nothing to do. For the HENRY class probably the biggest thing to watch out for is if you have ESPP or RSU sales from a company stock plan your 1099 may not have an accurate cost basis and you’ll have to manually enter corrected values based on supplementary forms from your company stock plan, but a CPA might not even catch that if you aren’t clear that they’re RSU or ESPP sales.

I’ve always had a CPA, my entire family uses the same firm/ guy.

Husband is self-employed and typically works for two clients at a time. I’m a W-2 employee and also do 1099 work for one client, so between us we effectively have four income streams. We also own a rental property (income stream 5, I guess). We brought on a CPA due to 1099 work, plus rental income.

When my time was worth more than the cost of doing the taxes myself.

I started using a CPA after participating in my company's liquidity events. It was my first time having to deal with estimated taxes and didn't want to screw it up.

I’ll be the “easy” tax and use the CPA after a nightmare of the IRS harassing me for months about not having all the paperwork needed, after I used TurboTax… I would’ve paid to be able to take all the notices to the CPA who did the taxes, drop it in his lap and say fix it. Instead I had to muddle through it.

This thread is really timely for me. I’m still mostly W2, but starting to move out of the “very simple” bucket and trying to decide when TurboTax stops making sense.

I’ve got high W2 income, a taxable brokerage, plan to do backdoor Roths, a small solo LLC on the side, and a 25% stake in an STR LLC where profits are currently being recycled for growth. Nothing exotic yet, but enough moving pieces that I’m more worried about missing planning opportunities or tripping things like the pro-rata rule than basic filing errors.

What I’m really trying to figure out is whether it’s time to find a proactive CPA who thinks about strategy during the year, not just someone who looks backwards in March and plugs numbers into software (which I can already do). That kind of CPA seems harder to find than it should be.

For those who made the jump: was it driven more by income level, added complexity (LLCs, real estate, retirement strategy), or wanting proactive planning? And did you feel the real value showed up outside of tax season?

Curious where others drew that line.

When I got audited two years in a row despite everything being correct. 

Tired of the hassle, never been bothered since and that's worth the money for me.

When I had K-1s with multiple boxes and pages and loss rollovers

When I got an out of state investment property.

I’ve since sold that property but still use my CPA. While I have standard W2 income and rental income, I have unusual write off opportunities for both, and my CPA is far more well versed in what I can and cannot write off than I am.

This is a really common question. Short answer: it’s usually less about income level and more about complexity + opportunity.

If all of your income is W-2, you own a home, and your only investing is in a brokerage account, a good EA or even solid tax software can be perfectly fine, even at a high income. A CPA isn’t automatically required just because you make more money.

Where CPAs really start to earn their keep is when one or more of these show up: - Multiple income streams (business, 1099, equity comp, RSUs, options) - State complexity (multi-state work, relocation, remote income issues) - Significant tax planning opportunities (Roth conversions, AMT planning, timing income/bonuses, charitable strategies) - Upcoming changes (starting a business, selling a business, real estate, inheritance) - You want proactive planning, not just filing

A lot of high W-2 earners assume “I make a lot, I must need a CPA,” but then discover the CPA is mostly just compliance-focused. they file accurately, but they’re not really optimizing anything. That’s not wrong, it’s just the scope of the job.

The real question to ask yourself is: “Am I just trying to file correctly, or am I trying to strategically reduce taxes over time?”

If it’s the former, simplicity wins. If it’s the latter, that’s usually when pairing a CPA with a tax-aware wealth strategist starts to matter more than the credential alone.

So no, there isn’t a magic income number. It’s about whether your situation (or future plans) creates leverage for planning.

If you don’t mind sharing, what’s your income range right now? And how are you investing that income? Those also helps determine what type of professional you need on your team.

Do not bother with a CPA unless you have some unusual circumstances to warrant one. They’re not going to save you any more than what you will already find through using TurboTax. If you have a question Reddit or an AI app can help you. If you’re looking for ways to reduce your taxable income, speak to a tax advisor and you could also look into a financial planner.

Honestly 90% of work for me is to collect the documents. Maybe this year with rental it will be a bit more complicated but I’ll start early in case I need help but even that is straightforward 

K1s and anything outside of W2/1099s. >$150/200k also makes sense

We used a CPA for 3 years. The first 2 when I became a partner for my group and there were K1 vouchers. The last 1 is this year, we moved states and now a full year has passed since being on a W2, but we got a financial advisor (who I have now fired for doing nothing), who told us we should be tax planning and recommended someone. It’s now almost 2026 and he’s contact us exactly twice just to get our basic information and tell us to sign up for a portal. I had emailed him a month ago asking about tax planning and what he recommends to do in December to finish off strong, he emailed back a long list of canned “make sure to put money into your 401k” advice. We had already paid him otherwise we would have fired him too. Never again

When I moved in next door to an accountant and I became very lazy.

High earner on W2 with few K-1s - still like and use turbo tax. 15 yrs (- 2012) .

I’ve wanted to move to a CPA several times. Even though we aren’t typically high income earners (a couple of years we have been due to unique situations), we have found ourselves in complicated tax situations - but every CPA we’ve tried has really sucked and I’ve known things they have not (not an accountant here - just someone that pays attention), so I’ve been slogging our returns out in Turbo Tax with help from their live tax agents if needed - sometimes to the tune of many, many hours to get things right (one year I spent 8 hours on the phone with same Turbo Tax guy who had been a former IRS person to try and figure out a situation - no exaggeration). 2025 is going to be awful and extremely complicated. I thought I had finally found a good CPA that we used for my FIL’s probate and estate returns and we were planning on trying them for our 2025 returns. I guess (sadly), I wasn’t surprised that even though they were highly recommended, they screwed up estate and probate returns, made mistakes that I had to catch, and then had to file amended returns. This was also supposedly with an “experienced” estate CPA that had signed off on the returns. I guess we just have bad luck, but I don’t trust CPAs. It sucks. I want to, and we need one.

As a CPA, if you just have a W-2 and 1099s from investments, do it yourself (but not TurboTax… Intuit Sucks ass). Tipping points to using a pro: business activity is the biggest. Receiving, K-1s, rental properties, and multiple state returns. Generally the more things where you have discretion over how they’ do, like your own business, the more a CPA can help you.

I used CPA's for years and honestly every one made mistakes and caused more headaches while charging a lot.  Last year I just did TurboTax and I did better than with CPA with no mistakes.  Married, gross income 480,000, one W2 job, 2 schedule C self employment jobs. RSUs, own a home..... Was still less of a headache then working with someone.

Getting multiple letters from the IRS asking for more money

If I kept a W2 job, never. Even with a few rental properties it wasn't terribly difficult to file and tbh there isn't much in tax savings a CPA would provide. But as soon as I started my own business even with projected revenue of $100K I started to look for a CPA. Though beware there's a difference between a tax filer and tax strategist. You'll find a lot of tax filers aka paper pushers. Tax strategy is where the savings are and takes a bit more work to find a good one.

I had this itch. I scratched it by trying a CPA one year. Reviewed what she did and basically it's the same as what I've been doing with TT. Went back to doing it myself. But I got the peace of mind by comparing what I do with TT to a CPA.

Even “simple” W-2 finances can hide opportunities. A CPA isn’t just for complexity, it’s for making sure you are not making expensive mistakes, structuring smartly, and keeping up with changes in tax laws (eg, how the SALT cap or new 401(k)/Roth contribution limits affect your deductions and retirement savings). Most people don’t realize what they are leaving on the table by not planning ahead. For high earners, it can pay for itself. Otherwise, tax software covers the basics.

If you’re supposed to be in the group then you should be able to afford the $250-500 to get a CPA to handle it. A second set of eyes, someone completely up to date on any tax code changes, and a fallback in case you ever get audited

When we bought too much real estate to spend time on all the extra paperwork they require.

I’ve considered this because my company stock is from a foreign country and it always takes me ages and when I go to sell the stock I always get confused with the cost basis of the shares through the essp. Roth conversions are also confusing in TT but last year was the first time did it without pulling my hair out. We did go to a CPA for a few years and he gave us good advice for maximizing deductions and then basically said he’d be more useful if one of us started a business (we are both W2 workers).

No need for a CPA if W2 earner. I have one but I also have trusts a various investment accounts that need to be handled

I had one year when I hit high income and had W2 and 1099 income in multiple states, a bunch of itemized deductions, moved, bought a house, got married, etc all in the same year and I just went with a CPA. Finances have been simple since then but once I started I just kind of kept doing it out of convenience

When I started my Rental and my business where I manufacture and sell goods on ebay, Amazon, shopify, YouTube. It was $700 for my cpa and it saved me a shitload for time. He found me thousands in depreciations. Totally worth it.

When I bought rental properties. Depreciation, etc. if you don’t have anything other than W2 I come, etc. you probably don’t need a cpa. Keep every tax form you receive. Make sure they’ll all accounted for in the software. You’ll be fine.

W2, basic mortgage, 90% of investments are retirement, with a small LLC and I still DIY taxes. I like the control and understanding of exactly what moves the needle up and down. And I am a spreadsheet nerd.

2026 might be different as I am changing jobs and getting a fairly large severance payout. In theory, it should still be the same just bigger numbers.

Tipping point for us was becoming accidental real estate landlords (could sell a home in a declining market, renter stayed 10 years). Rental portfolio grew, 1031 exchanges occurred.

I consult with a tax attorney when something significant changes. Couple hundred dollars every few years.

I use a CPA when I have specific questions that turbo tax doesn't handle well. For example one year I had a settlement to record, and this coming year I have options to exercise that I want advice on spreading them out to avoid the AMT. But years where it's literally just my house and basic investment income, I DIY it.

Business ownership.

At this point in the uear a CPA cant save you more taxes. With just a W2 and basic investments, I'd use turbo tax. What you can do is book an appointment with a CPA/financial advisor for like May 1st to get tax advice.

I got a CPA when Turbo Tax caused me to screw up my filing. Ironically, it was also Turbo Tax that helped me realize (a year later) that my filing was screwed up.

The CPA refilled for the year I screwed up, and got me thousands back. At that time, her fee was literally the same as Turbo Tax.

Now, I would hesitate to do it on my own even with Turbo Tax. My financial life is much more complicated (not outrageous, just volume), and having a professional do it is so much less stressful.

We used a CPA for the last couple of years and are going back to doing our own taxes, mostly W2 but wife was 1099 on the side. Our finances were also complicated due to stock options. We realized we spent so much time collecting information and explaining it to the CPA that we were better off doing our own taxes just like before. This year we are going back to turbo tax.

When RSUs and deferred comp nonqulalified plan became part of package. Also used them for real estate taxes.