<prompt> Human: Insane amount of tax-related posts here! While not for everyone, this year I decided I would file my 1040 myself at Line by line I entered my information referencing the Form 1040 instructions Schedule A and B instructions, and prior year returns which were done professionally.Not only did I learn a lot, but I got an immense sense of accomplishment. My taxes were very straightforward this year and I probably spent 3 hours total over the course of a week to get it done and checked.  <response>: Ive always filed my own taxes by hand. This year, I tried using TaxAct just to see how it comes up. It came out exactly the same for me.The biggest criticism I hear is that you will miss some deduction or credit if you file by hand. What people dont seem to realise is that if you go down line by line, the instructions are literally asking you the same questions that the tax software asks. If you just check each line, youre no more likely to miss something than answering incorrectly on the software. Furthermore, at least with TaxAct, it had me fill in a bunch of information only relevant if I was itemizing deductions. Of course its important to compare, but if you know you have a clear cut case, its actually quicker to do it by hand.Of course, all the benefits of actually understanding how taxes are calculated is just icing on the cake. 