I think mine was filled out by Turbo Tax with schedule D. But I never evoked, I sent them paper every year.
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As far as I could tell, if you used the TT business version- you have to mail it, or if there is any red rather than black numbers on any of the forms- it needs attention to clarifyā¦but I am a newbie, what do I know?
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When TT comes up with red cells, I just go through that form and correct the info manually. Usually this happens with self employment forms. Accounting method not selected. Duh. No one asked me about that during the āinterview.ā After these corrections, the tax e file goes through. And the IRS is sure as heck to withdraw the money we owe like the next day! 
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I donāt do the interview anymore, but I noticed when I sent in the check, it doesnāt take long before they cash it, I always send in the last day, lol.
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Did my own until I had to start filing in three different states, getting credits for some but not all of my payments to others. That combined with the complexity of accounting for company stock option sales finally pushes me to an accountant. With about 100 pages of filing between fed and states, I donāt think itās realistic for me to do it.
We get that! Although weāve always done our own taxes, past few decades with TT, this year we decided to splurge for the $900 accountant recommended by our Financial Advisor. In addition to Roth Rollover complexities (first time for us), I sold all of my remaining company stock option shares. It was a big mess going back to 1980s, with dividend reinvestment and multiple stock splits. For most of it, Computershare cost basis was not available. Alas, we learned in December that the accountant was no longer available this year for small fish like us. Kudos to hubby who created an impressive spreadsheet involving a lot of manual inputs plus auto-lookup on purchase price database.
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Thatās tough to create and not having a basis, kudos to your husband. I have been doing Roth conversion for a few years now, this is the first time I spend time reviewing carefully and answer everything about my conversions.
Today I found an error that TT generated, to my benefit, I knew I would be paying less because the box that indicates taxable income is different from the Gross distribution, there was no box checked for SEP/IRA at all, so why was I paying for Gross Distribution, it turns out something was clicked by the interview in the SEP/IRA box, this is a pension for my husband, not some IRA distribution, it was contributed with after tax money, so glad I found it.
Taking a temporary break, going back to check some more after this, Iām dedicating 2-3 hours for checking today, but honestly I would like to go outside and work in my garden.
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H finished our taxes today using Tax Act. He likes it better than TT. Iām surprised weāre the only ones who use it - but itās all up to him as far as Iām concerned. I do 100% of our budgeting and bills, but have no desire to tackle taxes, esp with his owning the business and our investments.
Iām probably also odd that I donāt care too much if we pay more than we potentially could. I understand the reason for taxes and prefer to keep the belief that our taxes only go to things we want to support. The rest of yāall pay for the things we donāt care for. We still have enough to live on comfortably. If we were stretched to the gills and barely able to keep food on the table Iād probably feel differently.
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Long term capital gains are potentially taxed at 0%.
I finished our taxes yesterday on TT and submitted them and paid online. We paid a bit more this year than normal, but some of that was because of how well our investments did so no complaining from me.
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Thatās a good attitude. Long ago we used to roll our eyes at tax bill for stock sold at a profit. Then we had a time where we needed to sell, and the loss allowed write-off. After that I was not as concerned about taxed gains.
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I did ours for years with pencil and the booklets and forms from the post office. I have been using TurboTax through the IRS freefile for the last few years except for a couple of years when one of our deacons at church who is a CPA volunteered to do them for me for free but he is now retired and in assisted living so i had to go back to doing them myself. TT is not participating in the free program this year so I used FreeTaxUSA. Mine was simple this year, after a few years of having 1099 self-employed income. I would not have even had to enter deductions except that Alabama has a much lower standard deduction so I always come out ahead to itemize on state. I still have to do my sonās taxes, and he has 1099 income and taxable scholarships.
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TT still has free programs, but it isnāt part of the federal program. When it comes up, you can pick āsee other TT programsā and the free edition will come up. I did mine and had no issue, but when I tried to do my motherās I did have this little runaround.
But TT does still have the free edition. They try to talk you into upgrading, but for my motherās $37 state refund, I was okay with the free edition.
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Some pages about the complexity of US income taxes, and the lobbying of tax preparation companies against simplified lower cost tax filing.
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Taxes done! Used Tax Act. Super-annoyed that Feds tax SS, though thankfully my state doesnāt. They didnāt used to, back when I got SS in the 70s.
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Different types of SS benefits are taxed differently. My guess is that the SS benefit you received back in the 70s was not a retirement benefit for work done by you.
The 1970ās were 50 years ago. Weāre you really getting SS in the 70ās?
It was probably a disability and/or survivors benefit.
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When I checked the box that I had over $300 in donations to charity TT took away the free option. I also have to do my sonās taxes and he has SE income from a 1099 so the free one doesnāt work for him either.