Taxes cannot be completely automated because they are laws. Laws are expressed in language, and language is not exact - even our own understanding of such language will change through the years, as any constitutional scholar can attest.
Re:Jobs Inside the API
by dave_aiello on Friday August 10, 2018 @01:47PM
(#17735341)
The biggest reason to use a tax professional in the USA is that it's their job to know what a reasonable amount of expense is against a certain amount of income where withholding taxes aren't taken out.
"That’s what tax preparers are – they use the exact same software that anyone can use at home, but they allow you to talk to a human instead of learning the software"
IMHO this is one of those edge cases where software might simplify the process 99 times out of 100, but a skilled/experienced human may help avoid uncommon but costly mistakes. There is enough nuance and vagueness in taxes that it pays to have a human look over your numbers -- even if they use software to do it.