Last year was a first for me - I did our taxes by myself. And it turned out to be SIMPLE. There are hundreds of places you could spend money on tax prep. We went that route for years (mainly because we had income from another state = paying federal taxes plus 2 state taxes = somewhat complicated). But now our taxes are fairly straight forward, so doing them myself is easier than I thought it would be.

My suggestion: go here to learn more about using the FreeFile system (income less than $57,000, you qualify for FreeFile). You still need to have all your paperwork lined up, of course. This system helps point out errors in your return as well as makes suggestions of credits for which you qualify, which is very helpful (and meant $1,000 bigger refund for us last year because I missed a credit we qualified for!) You can expect refunds within 10 business days, with direct deposit.

Needless to say, with a system that takes your hand and walks you through the process, there's no need to put this off until April 15th!

It works for me!