AMT?
Nope. It’s a long, boring story.
Yep - I write contracts for a living, but you won’t see me in a courtroom attempting to practice law. I don’t want a dermatologist to do any heart surgery on me, either - even if he studied some surgery in med school and did a surgical rotation. :dubious:
All in all, I will stick with someone who spent a few years studying the details of tax law, got an MST, and are licensed as an EA to practice by the IRS.
If you really believe that it is impossible for a layman to learn enough about tax law to competently do their own taxes, ever, then I will waste no more of my time trying to convince you.
If I had a “real” business, and hence a more complicated tax picture, I would probably hire a tax professional. But my business isn’t really a business, exactly; it looks a lot like someone who simply pays their employee as an independent contractor. (Except that I work whenever I damned well please, and several other work condition things that make me an IC.) The tax situation is really very simple. My main point is, not all Schedule C returns are difficult. That’s why there’s even a Schedule C-EZ. DrDeth’s “idiot” brush is too broad.
Well, see you misrepresented yourself twice, and thus, sorry. But if “the man who represents himself has a fool for a client” is true, then “the dude who has a ScHD and does his own taxes is an idiot” is also.
In both cases there are rare exceptions.
I used to do my taxes with a pencil on the back of the envelope my W2 came in. That included the 1040, A, C, E, SE, 4562, 880, etc.
Now I use one of the e-filing sites.
Takes me a couple of hours.
I have done my own taxes forever, except for two years when I had some 1099 stuff to deal with and I was much younger and less wise. 
Since I’ve been married I’ve done taxes on my own (except for the first year when my mom helped to make sure I got all the deductions correct). And I’ve used TurboTax every year after that, about 9 years running. I get the automatic renewal including state and it costs about $45. I file electronically and it’ll cost < $25, and I’ll get a rebate on the federal. I do get grumpy about paying to file elctronically, but it’s very fast and easy and I’m lazy.
My love for TurboTax has decreased somewhat since I was notified by the state about a deduction I claimed which turned out to be incorrect. I’m a bit miffed that TT let me get away with it, but, reading the same info this year, I wonder what the hell I was thinking taking the deduction anyway. So, I paid the back taxes and I pay better attention.
My taxes are simple, single state residence, homeowner, W2s until this year when a 1099 came in for my wife’s new job. Nothing too complicated adn the software makes it easy.