Way back when I was about 23 years old, and had always done my own short form tax return, came a year in which I figured I was going to owe more than I had, so I visited the Federal Building to ask the tax folks about a payment plan. However, the gentleman I talked to refigured everything, and instead of me owing, he got me a small refund.:cool2: I know most of us complain about the IRS but they sure ain't all bad.
One year, when I was still working in the Post Office and filed the short form (how many remember the old form on a little card with 7 or 8 lines?), later in the year I got a letter from the IRS that my tax return was one of those randomly selected for audit and an error was found on line number (I don't remember the number) and that I had a $10 refund coming. I later got a check for $10 and spent it, but I had kept a copy of what I filed and there was NO error on it.
When we bought our first house, instead of doing the short form myself, I went to H&R Block. I have no idea how they do things now, but back then, an elderly guy got it all done, and I paid him, but then he said he had to send it in to their office to be checked and then they'd send it to me to mail. When I got it in the mail, on a Saturday morning, it had some of my forms and some of someone else's forms and a notation of the errors they'd found. Since they were closed on weekends in those days, I simply redid everything myself, filed the return, and then called H&R Block Monday and told them I thought they owned me a refund of what I'd paid them. The guy said, "Sure you could do it yourself, after you had our figures." And I told him, "I'm mailing you paperwork to you, and if you can honestly tell me that anyone could use your figures for anything, then you owe me nothing. Otherwise I want a refund." They sent the refund.
When I retired from the police department, the city was late that year getting all the paperwork out, so it was getting near the deadline when I got all the paperwork done, and I decided to contact one of the biggest firms in Dallas to review everything I'd done and tell me how to correct it. The guy asked lots of questions that day, and finally told me I had everything done and that he couldn't help me. I asked how much I owed him and he said, "Nothing, since I can't help you." So my wife and I took off for Alaska the next day. But a month or so later, I got a letter from the IRS wanting about $150 for not paying in enough in advance DURING the year. I just sent them a check.
When we bought the little farm down in the country, I had some new forms and entries to make, so when I finished, I took everything to a tax accountant and left it with him a few days. When I went back to get it, he said it looked good to him, and when I asked how much I owed him, he said, "Nothing."
So ever since then I just use TurboTax. I think they say if you pay an extra $45 they'll represent you if you get audited. I've never paid for that service and have never needed it.