Most stress-free and hands-off way to do my taxes with anxiety?

It sounds like you need a true full-service tax professional rather than the retail tax preparation experience. The difference is significant! H&R Block and similar services are designed for volume - they process many returns quickly, but don't necessarily provide the hand-holding some people need. I'd recommend looking for a local CPA or Enrolled Agent who specializes in individual taxes. These professionals typically offer more personalized service where you can simply drop off your documents or email them, answer a few questions, and they handle everything else. Many will even file electronically for you so there's no mailing involved. The key is finding someone who understands your anxiety around numbers and is willing to guide you through only what's absolutely necessary. A good tax professional will organize the process for you, minimize your involvement to just providing documents, and handle all the calculations and filing.

I was in a really similar situation - taxes gave me major anxiety and I kept putting them off. Then I found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it completely changed how I deal with my taxes. It's basically an AI-powered service that analyzes all your tax documents without you having to input much of anything. You just upload pictures of your documents (W-2s, 1099s, whatever you have), and it extracts all the information automatically. The best part is you don't have to deal with all those intimidating numbers yourself - the system does the work while explaining everything in plain English. It's the most hands-off approach I've found that doesn't involve paying someone a ton of money.

I wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after I was skeptical in my last comment. I decided to give it a try since I was desperate to break my tax anxiety cycle, and I'm genuinely shocked at how well it worked. The document scanning feature is a game-changer for someone like me who gets overwhelmed by numbers. I literally just took pictures of my W-2 and some 1099s, and it extracted everything automatically. Then it walked me through some simple questions in plain English - no tax jargon or math required on my part. The whole process took about 30 minutes instead of the multiple frustrating sessions I used to have. If you have tax anxiety like the original poster described, this might be exactly what you need. I'm actually not dreading tax season next year for once!

If your issue is specifically with getting through to actual humans at the IRS (which can be helpful if you have past years to resolve), I found a service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that literally gets you to the front of the IRS phone queue. I was dealing with some back taxes and spent DAYS trying to get through on the IRS lines. Their system somehow gets you past the "all our representatives are busy" message. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was initially super skeptical but after waiting on hold for 3+ hours multiple days in a row, I gave it a shot. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 15 minutes who helped me set up a payment plan for my past due taxes.

I need to eat my words from my skeptical comment. After struggling to get through to the IRS for THREE WEEKS about a notice I received, I reluctantly tried Claimyr. I was 100% sure it would be a waste of money. Well, I'm shocked to report that it actually worked exactly as advertised. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 20 minutes after weeks of failing to get through on my own. The agent was able to explain my notice and help me resolve the issue in one call. For anyone like the original poster who struggles with tax anxiety, this could be a legitimate solution if you need to deal with the IRS directly about past tax issues. Being able to actually speak to someone without the endless hold time reduced my stress levels significantly.

Have you tried TurboTax Full Service? I hate doing taxes and have major math anxiety too. Their full service option lets you upload documents and a CPA does everything. You just review and approve at the end. They also have a good audit protection plan that gives me peace of mind.

As someone with severe anxiety myself, getting a dedicated accountant changed my life. Not H&R Block, not a random CPA, but someone I actually connected with who understood my anxiety. I interview several until I found someone who didn't make me feel stupid for my questions.

Have you considered having a friend or family member sit with you while you use one of the DIY software options? Sometimes just having moral support helps with the anxiety, and most tax software is actually pretty straightforward if you take it one step at a time.