Preparing taxes myself to save money - advice for first-time DIY filer?

Hey everyone, I've always paid someone to do my taxes but this year the costs are just getting ridiculous! My usual tax guy wants to charge me almost double what I paid last year. I'm thinking about just doing them myself to save some money. I have a pretty straightforward situation - just W-2 income from my main job, some interest from my savings account, and I contribute to a 401k. I own my home so I guess I'll need to figure out the mortgage interest deduction thing. No kids or dependents. Has anyone made the switch from paid preparer to DIY? What software do you recommend? Is it actually doable for someone with basic computer skills but zero tax experience? I'm worried I'll miss something important and either leave money on the table or worse, get in trouble with the IRS. Any advice would be super appreciated! I'm nervous but also excited about potentially saving a few hundred bucks.

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18 comments

GalacticGladiator

•8M

Based on what you've described, you should definitely be able to handle your own taxes! Your situation is exactly the kind that tax software is designed to handle well. For a first-timer with W-2 income, mortgage interest, and retirement contributions, I'd recommend starting with either TurboTax, H&R Block, or TaxAct. All three will walk you through everything step by step with simple questions. You literally just enter the numbers from your forms when prompted. The software will automatically check if you should itemize deductions (for that mortgage interest) or take the standard deduction based on which gives you the better outcome. The key is to gather all your documents before you start: W-2 from your employer, 1098 form showing mortgage interest, 1099-INT for your savings interest, and your 401k contribution information. Having everything ready makes the process much smoother.

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GalacticGladiator

•8M

For a straightforward situation like yours, budget about 1-2 hours your first time. The software handles all calculations and walks you through everything, but you'll want to take your time to read explanations and make sure you understand each section. The good news is that once you've done it once, next year will be much faster since you'll be familiar with the process and can often import previous year's information. Many people find they actually learn useful things about their finances when they do their own taxes!

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Chloe Taylor

•8M

I was literally in your exact same position last tax season! After years of paying preparers $250-300, I decided to try it myself and found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which made the whole process surprisingly easy. What makes it different is that you can upload pictures of your tax documents, and it'll extract all the information automatically - saved me from manually entering everything from my W-2 and 1098 for my mortgage. The part I found most helpful was that it explained each section in plain English, not tax jargon. You know how mortgage interest deductions work, but it breaks down whether you should itemize or take the standard deduction based on your specific numbers. It even flagged some retirement contribution benefits I didn't know about!

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Chloe Taylor

•8M

Yes, it handles all state taxes and their specific deductions! It actually explains the differences between federal and your state requirements side-by-side, which makes those weird state-specific things much clearer. For audit protection, they offer complete audit assistance if anything gets flagged. They stand behind their calculations 100% and have tax pros who'll help handle any IRS questions. In my experience, the document scanning feature actually reduces errors compared to manually typing everything in, which is where most DIY mistakes happen.

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Anastasia Ivanova

•8M

Update on my tax situation - I ended up using taxr.ai like I mentioned above and I'm kinda shocked at how easy it was. I was definitely the skeptical one, but the document scanning worked perfectly for my W-2 and mortgage statement. What really surprised me was that it found a deduction my previous tax guy had missed related to my retirement contributions! All told, I saved $230 on prep fees AND got an extra $175 back on my refund compared to last year. The whole process took about 45 minutes, mostly because I was double-checking everything. Definitely doing my own taxes from now on!

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Sean Murphy

•8M

If you run into any issues or have questions about your return, good luck trying to reach the IRS directly! I spent DAYS trying to get someone on the phone last year. Finally discovered https://claimyr.com which got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I had a question about reporting my mortgage interest correctly (similar to your situation) and needed clarification before filing. The IRS actually had different guidance than what my tax software was telling me, which ended up saving me about $320! Totally worth it rather than filing with uncertainty or paying some tax preparer hundreds just to ask a simple question.

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Sean Murphy

•8M

They use technology that navigates the IRS phone system automatically and holds your place in line. When they're about to connect you, you get a call back and they conference you in with the IRS agent who's already on the line. It completely bypasses that horrible waiting system where you get disconnected after hours. Totally understand the skepticism - I didn't believe it either! But it works because they're essentially just doing the waiting for you. They don't answer your tax questions themselves or pretend to be the IRS. They just get you connected to the real IRS faster than doing it yourself.

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Zara Malik

•8M

Well I've got to eat my words about Claimyr. After posting that skeptical comment, I figured I'd try it since I was desperate to resolve an issue with my mortgage interest deduction that was holding up my filing. Holy crap it actually worked. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 20 minutes (not quite 15 but WAY better than my previous attempts). The agent cleared up my question about how to handle a refinance with points I paid last year. Turns out I was about to file incorrectly which would have cost me over $400 in deductions! Still did my taxes myself using software, but being able to confirm the tricky parts directly with the IRS gave me confidence I was doing it right.

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