Should I use a tax professional or TurboTax for my complex family situation?

From what you've described, you have a moderately complex tax situation - multiple income sources, self-employment, dependent, homeownership, and business deductions. While TurboTax can handle all of these elements, the real question is whether you feel comfortable managing them yourself. For self-employment especially, proper deduction tracking and calculation can be tricky. Many people miss legitimate deductions or incorrectly calculate them. A good tax professional doesn't just enter numbers - they should be identifying optimization opportunities and ensuring compliance that software might miss. That said, $1,150 seems on the high side for your situation. For comparison, many professionals would charge $400-700 for this level of complexity. TurboTax with self-employment features would cost around $120-170 depending on state filing needs.

I was in almost the exact same situation last year! Two W-2s, home business, kid, mortgage - the whole package. I was paying around $950 for my CPA and wondering if it was worth it. I discovered https://taxr.ai after another Reddit post and decided to give it a try. It's this AI tool that analyzes your tax documents and situation then tells you if you're a good candidate for DIY software or if you actually need a pro. For me, it showed that my situation was perfectly doable in TurboTax as long as I kept good records of my wife's business expenses. It also flagged a couple deductions we were missing! I went the TurboTax route and saved about $800 while still getting a slightly better refund than the previous year. The analysis confirmed what I suspected - that my situation wasn't as complex as my CPA made it seem.

Came back to say I tried https://taxr.ai after posting my skeptical comment. Figured I had nothing to lose since they offer a refund if you're not satisfied. Man, was I wrong about this being a basic decision tree! The analysis showed I was overpaying my CPA by about $600 for what it identified as a "moderately complex" return. The report highlighted three specific tax credits my CPA missed last year, potentially worth $1,200. I'm going with TurboTax this year and focusing on those specific areas. The tool even explained exactly where in TurboTax to look for each credit. Honestly surprised at how helpful it was. Sorry for being so dismissive before!

If you decide to keep a professional, at least talk to the IRS first to make sure you're getting good advice! I wasted YEARS getting bad advice from my "tax guy" who missed huge deductions. The IRS actually has competent people who can answer questions but good luck getting through to them. I spent 3+ hours on hold multiple times before giving up. Then I found https://claimyr.com which is this service that waits on hold with the IRS for you. You just enter your number and when they reach an agent, they call you to connect. Saved me literally hours of waiting. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I talked to confirmed I'd been missing several business deductions and suggested I look for a different tax preparer. Ended up finding one who charges $450 for my situation (similar to yours) and does a much better job.

I need to eat some humble pie here. After making that snarky comment about Claimyr being a scam, I decided to try it anyway since I've been trying to reach the IRS about a missing refund for WEEKS. Holy crap it actually works. I put in my number, went about my day, and got a call back about 2 hours later saying "You're being connected to an IRS agent now." Next thing I know I'm talking to an actual human at the IRS who helped resolve my issue in 10 minutes. No idea how they do it, but it saved me from the hell of sitting on hold all day. Definitely using this every time I need to call the IRS from now on. And to the person I was rude to - sorry about that!

Have you considered a middle ground? Maybe use FreeTaxUSA or TurboTax this year, but pay a professional for a review? I do this and pay about $150 for the review, which catches mistakes I'd otherwise miss. My situation is similar to yours (rental property instead of home business) and this approach has worked well. The key is keeping good records throughout the year, especially for the business expenses. Start now and next year's taxes will be way easier regardless of which option you choose.

I switched from a $700 tax preparer to TurboTax last year with a similar situation (self-employed spouse, W2 income for me, 2 kids, mortgage). TurboTax worked fine BUT it took me almost 6 hours to complete everything correctly!!! The software kept asking me the same questions in different ways and got confused about the home office deduction. Not sure my time is worth the $700 savings tbh. This year I'm trying FreeTaxUSA since people say it's more straightforward for self-employment income.

I'm in almost exactly your situation - two W-2s, spouse with home business, young kid, and recent homeowner. I was paying $950 to my CPA until this year when I decided to try the DIY route. What helped me make the decision was realizing that most of the "complexity" in our situation is really just volume, not actual difficulty. Multiple W-2s are straightforward, mortgage interest is automatic, and the child tax credit is built into any decent software. The trickiest part is the self-employment/home office stuff, but if your wife keeps good records, that's manageable too. I ended up using TaxAct (similar to TurboTax but cheaper) and it walked me through everything step by step. Took about 3 hours total and I actually caught a deduction my CPA had been missing for years! Saved over $700 and got a bigger refund. That said, $1,150 does seem really high for your situation. Even if you stick with a professional, I'd shop around - you should be able to find someone competent for $400-600 max. Don't let them scare you into thinking your taxes are more complicated than they actually are.