How did you do your 2023 tax returns?

Less popular opinion so definitely not for everyone (not addressing leaks or security, will leave that to others who are far wiser).

If you make $xx/hr in ur full-time and you have taxes beyond simply w2 and 2 or 3 banks for checking/credit/investments, doing taxes on your own through freetaxusa or turbotax may take up an entire afternoon or whole day (unless your one to be very organized like the top poster here, respect). At some point, its worth thinking about how many hours of your time does it stop becoming worth it to do your own and hire a cpa.

For me, once forms like donations, multiple w2s, property, landlord stuff, started adding up, it'd take an entire weekend. Thats 16 hrs of my life, i eventually took the leap and found a great cpa (after wasting $$ on overpriced ones) thru a friend referral and now spend $600 on what takes me less than 2 hours to consolidate and upload forms, and double check deductible expenses.

Whatd i do with all my extra time? Binged 3 body problem. Yes, i wasted it. But a better person would spend it with friends or family or reading or anything more productive than me. If this seems to fit your mold, its worth considering.

Again, not for everyone but good to think about as life progresses for you (or anyone else here).

I was going to use TurboTax, but bailed when they tried to make me pay them >$100. FreeTaxUSA happily let me file for free.

Next year I hope to use the IRS Direct File software if it's rolled out to all states.

By hand on paper.

I don't really see the point in worrying about data leaks. A CPA who leaked your data would have their reputation so completely destroyed I doubt it would be worth it. That's 5 years of expensive and high-energy education to throw down the drain. Plus, the IRS system is probably a poorly secured and very profitable target you can't do anything about.

The real problem is that software has bugs. If I'm going to have to go through the trouble of double-checking everything by hand anyway, it makes sense not to bother paying for software.

The useful piece of advice is how to learn to do this. Volunteering for the VITA program will give you a 2 day training on how to prepare taxes, in return for spending one day a week helping other people file their taxes for a few months. (Which is free spaced repetition and practice, anyway.)

https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/

In-house software written in C to process monthly statements received from rental-agents, interfacing with a MySQL database to produce integrated spreadsheets which are then sent to a certified tax-agent accountant who is licensed to prepare the official electronic tax returns for the Taxation Department.

Why would they 'leak the data'? My accountant is a professional who I have dealt with since 1991. We've grown old together and trust each other.

Even if they did perchance 'leak the data', who'd care enough to bother to look at it?

Turbo Tax Home and Business. Might be evil DRM and Windows and Mac only, but it is easy to use.

I used paid web-based software. After triple-checking everything and researching what each form and boxes mean, part of me wants to just do it myself next year. I assume the only concern would be updated tax laws and ensuring everything is done accurately, but it seems straightforward enough. If that takes too long, back to the paid software.

Yes I used a particular software and it wasn't a problem to air gap that. I don't need preparer or accountant. I fear they will leak my data - happened once, that I got the report back from some other random guy. It was nice reading. So, as long they don't have a master's degree in CS - no, thank you.

FreeTaxUSA.com for the second year in a row, very happy with it. State taxes, if filed through them are $15, federal is $0.

The experience is basically exactly like TurboTax (which I had used for ~4-6 of the prior years), but it doesn't prop up the lobbying campaign to keep the federal government from just sending you a tax bill.

With great difficulty considering I’m outside the US long term and it turns out a lot of financial institutions’ security measures include “block all IPs from Asia”

But ultimately I used TaxSlayer, web based. I’m sure they leaked my data but all of this feels like public data to me anyway

By hand with a pen. Go figure.

Same accountant we've used for years. I don't understand the "leaked your data" question, care to elaborate?

FreeTaxUSA.com. I’ve been using them for several years now.

TurboTax online.

German:

I plan to use ELSTER.

Did mine in about half an hour with Cash App Taxes (free) and ChatGPT for questions. I'm self-employed, but it was pretty straightforward. Got my refunds a couple weeks later.

Didn't want to use TurboTax because Intuit is an evil company that actively lobbies against streamlining our taxes. They're basically the reason we have to do this shitty process every year.

The convenience of saving my returns with the app far outweighs any concerns about leakage for me. Who the hell would want to look at my tax returns? If the IRS could just do my taxes for me, I wouldn't even bother to look at them, myself.