At what point is it recommended to not use a software like freetaxusa? I've been using it for years.
I would say you need your own accountant and not software if:
1) You have complexities involving trusts/inheritance
2) Anything involving crypto (this is just a grey area to me and things change)
3) Anything that sounds more complex than anything above.
If you're getting a bunch of 1099-DIVs/INT & W2/W9s it's not super complex.
5) Foreign income, other than simple investment income (e.g., own stocks in foreign companies).
That is not true. Perhaps what you mean is that capital gains on assets held less than a year are taxed at a different rate than capital gains on assets held longer than a year?
Don't mean to get pedantic but I didn't want someone to read your comment and think that they owe no taxes on short-term capital gains. (What a crazy tax incentive that would be!)
If anyone has any recommendations I’m all ears
I send my bank statements, credit card bills and other documents to my accountant. He produces a return, together with optimisation advice for the coming year. It’s well worth the money. (I also have real estate, private equity, fund interests and emerging trust situations, and am multi-state.)
1. You don't have to figure out which forms to file by yourself. This quickly becomes non-trivial if you run a business, take a lot of deductions, or have weird forms of income.
2. The IRS sees that your return was prepared by a professional, so it is much less likely that they will try for an audit (since a professional will be representing you).
If your tax liability is under $100k and your return is under ~20 pages, you mostly don't need one, but an accountant also doesn't charge much either (about the same price as TurboTax).
No affiliation or anything.