I completed my federal and state filing using H&R Block software. A couple things I discovered.
1. I am a resident of California. The software has you fill out the federal forms first. Several times the program pointed out that I didn't need to file deductions; for charities, donations, work related expenses, even expenses for filing taxes since all of them don't add up enough to offset the new and higher standard deductions. Great! Knowing this, next year's taxes will take all of 5 minutes. Then it had me fill out the state forms. I was shocked to see I owed hundreds more than I should. I went back to the federal form and reloaded all the donations and deductions I had deleted after painstakingly entered earlier, even though the new standard federal deduction is more than my itemized ones, and all of a sudden, instead of owing the state hundreds of dollars, I was due a refund of hundreds of dollars.
2. At one point the software had me enter a date to pay my taxes. It suggested April 15th. I could file my taxes electronically and pay the amount due at a later date. Refunds are paid back as quick as the system allows.
3. H&R Block software made a mistake on my filing. I used them last year and at one point near the end of e-filing, the federal government asks for the AGI from last year's taxes. H&R filled that box in and I assumed it was right. It wasn't. My federal form was rejected. Then the state of California also rejected my return as they require the fed to accept before they will. I looked up what my AGI was from last year and compared it to what H&R filled in. H&R filled in with the amount I got back from my state return last year, not the AGI from the federal form last year, but the refund from the state last year. That's messed up! Not only that, it's a box that I could not modify what H&R populated it with. Took me a while of research to find out I had to right click on the box, agree that any number I put in released them from any guarantee that the forms were filled right and I was safeguarded from an audit. Eventually I got the number in right and the feds accepted my filing. But the state rejected it because the AGI wasn't right. Fuuuuu......
Seems the state wants the AGI from the state form and the feds want the AGI from the Fed form. But H&R only asked me for the Fed AGI. But now that the feds accepted the form, I could repopulate the AGI that the state wanted. Filed again and it worked.
****EDIT****
4. I forgot; the software encourages me to hold off giving my donations and deductions every other year in order to accumulate enough to be more than the standard deduction on the federal return. If I did that, I'd owe more to the state of California every other year than I'd get back from the Feds.