Some people need an accountant but cannot afford one. An advantage of a computer is that it can perform many of the calculations needed to stay compliant with recent tax laws, which unfortunately seems to change slightly every few years. If a person has simple taxes, then the solution is simple. If their taxes are more complicated, then it might be hard to find all the qualifying discount. Find the most updated and all-around best accounting software on this website.
The bottom line is that it is tough to beat the expertise of a professional financial consultant who knows a lot of industry tricks as well as the tax laws. That said, software built by tax preparers might be able to follow a fixed set of rules that is acceptable to the IRS and still manages to find a wide variety of ways to minimize tax liability. The alternative is to spend the first four months of each year earning money to pay the tax collector.
There are limits as to what a tax preparation software can do. Rich people often hire legal experts to find a wide variety of loopholes to help evade their taxes such as creating corporations or locating some assets in overseas banks. Without these arrangements already in place, a tax preparation software might not be able to help. It also might not be able to account for assets in shielded city-states.
The best software is built by accounting experts who essentially tell programmers what they want. In this fashion, it is possible to give ordinary people their best advice every single year and essentially mass produce excellent tax advice for a given tax year. While it might be necessary to purchase an update based on a tax year, the more sophisticated software can essentially give better advice.
It is up to the customer to determine if they need expert tax advice. Some people have relatively simple finances because they earn their salary and live in an apartment and have no complex needs such as a self-managed asset portfolio. If you have one of these unusual needs, then consider paying for the best accounting software around. Otherwise, a simpler and cheaper solution might be the best option.
The good news is that some tax software companies offer solutions to more average people. It might be possible to order a basic or advanced option or else to use a tool provided on a website. There are nearly as many options as available tax havens.