I question whether people are actually less likely to make a mistake if they do their taxes themselves. As you allude to, many of the mistakes done by professionals (or “professionals”) could have been made because the person filing didn’t provide accurate information. People who think taxes are too difficult to do themselves are probably also people who don’t realize everything that needs to be reported and don’t keep track of the info they need. If all those folks that get roped into those tax prep places did their own instead, we might find the rate of people who make mistakes go up.

That said, I’ll be finding a CPA for this year. I used to do my own taxes (using TurboTax or some such service) back when I only had W-2s and took the standard deduction. Now I have a W-2 (accounts for about 40% of my income), a handful of 1099s and some earnings that fell below the $600 threshold for issuing a 1099. Last year itemizing my deductions saved me the most, so I assume it’ll be that way again for 2015 taxes. I was also in grad school. I mean, I know none of that makes self-filing impossible, but when I weigh the time and energy it would take for me to feel comfortable entering all that data myself versus the money and peace of mind I’d get from having somebody else do it, I find myself convinced paying somebody is the best option for me. I’m diligent about tracking business expenses and bills. Let somebody else figure out which lines to put everything on.