Even plugging in your data from a w-2 can be an intimidating process with a a lot of conditionals and a few referals to other forms where you might need to give

Even plugging in your data from a w-2 can be an intimidating process with a a lot of conditionals and a few referals to other forms where you might need to give more information. In turn, those forms may reference still more forms, along with explanatory documents to further define the terms used and provide practical examples. A person may not know that supplemental forms aren't required for their situation until they have gone down that rabbit hole. As for itemizing, again, you may not know if you should itemize or not until you actually go through the process and see where the numbers fall. Meanwhile the IRS is held out as a boogey man who will ruin your life financially if you get something wrong. For most here on HN who deal with interlocking blocks of logic, tech documentation, etc? It's fine, and probably for a plenty of other people too. For a very large number of people though, it's the common paradox that it's only easy once once you already know what you're doing. And for a few weeks/months a year the tax prep industry works hard to convince people it's not something they should try to navigate on their own, and if they do then they're a sucker throwing away refund money because of hidden secret tricks to get more refund money back.