Have you gone through TurboTax's filing process? It starts with ~$149 upgrade for me, I believe. They have countless add-ons that popup throughout the filing process beyond just that (annual audit defense membership, get your refund faster, etc). So many up-sells and cross-sells, it is pretty disgusting.

I stopped using them last year because it was just too much. I can easily see how someone could end up with a multi-hundred dollar bill from them. Many of the popups are tailored to look like you need to say yes.

It's more than that, tacks on even more for state. and every time you 'finish' a step it tries to upsell some stupid audit protection and also another one to get human involved. I somehow doubt 'audit protection' would even give you a certified cpa or attorney when the irs comes knocking for a real audit, it's probably some dumb small print

I personally use it because my taxes are too complicated to do it myself on paper.

I hope they are correct, I honestly do a good faith job but it's too complicated.... the pdf download for 2020 was 426 pages... that includes state. and it will be even more next this year about to file my 21.

way too complicated I only own a small s-corp (technically 2) and do some really small level investing with active trading.

Not sure, but I saw a screenshot of her return. (looking it up now) It was $539.

The sad part: she didn't think anything of it, and thought that's how it was. The reason for the screenshot is because last year, her daughter's dad basically stole her child tax credit. So she was celebrating getting her return accepted before he could pull the same thing.

For reference, her return was also five figures. I'm guessing these companies aim for a % of the total return. So perhaps a "$149" upgrade was $249 because of her return size. Like how online retailers bump up the price for goods based on zip code. I'm speculating though.

Agreed, I’ve used turbotax in the past and never paid anywhere near that much. You could get a real accountant to do your taxes for less than that, maybe depending on the state. I know because I’ve done so.

Some tax preparers offer "immediate refund" for a hefty fee, instead waiting three weeks for the IRS to deposit it.