Been doing them by hand since I had to do taxes....and in complex situations (during divorce year, living overseas in the military with rental property in CA, living in separate states with spouse, selling stock, capital gains, many deductions/etc, joint federal return with separate state return (husband has different state of residence)
Why do I do it? I like to know what my government is up to - taxes are the way to see how they torture us for their projects
It is sporting to do Federal and then State income tax - CA has got to be the craziest I've ever done.
It is time consuming and one needs to do the research, however, after doing them now for 20+ years, I have a baseline from which I can compare. I just love the statements made on the forms about how long it would take to fill out the form - HA! I also love (not) all the different ways I can send my government more money to save all various kinds of endangered/minority/unfortunate animal, people, institutions (fillin the blank).
Will probably use Tax Cut this year - but will probably also do the back of the envelope pencil and paper version just to make sure - plus you have to prepare/gather all the information to fill in the blanks whether you do it yourself or type it into a program.
However, this is off topic, I also read all 192 pages of the voter guide for our elections here in CA before the election. So, I'm consistent - diligent about my responsibilities as a citizen....