I've done my own taxes for 22 years — a majority of them as part of a couple. There are lots of reasons I do them myself instead of using software or a tax preparer. Most of these reasons boil down to points of pride, but there are a few practical points there as well, cost being one of them. Why should I pay money to use a software package when part of my own tax dollars are spent to create, print, and mail the forms, not to mention employ the people manning the IRS hotline for my benefit? Why should I pay someone else to read and interpret the instructions on the forms for me when I'm perfectly capable of doing so myself? Why should I pay some random tax preparation office to transmit my tax form electronically when I can just as easily slap a stamp on it and drop it in the mail?

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