CPA vs tax software

On price alone, software wins until complexity arrives. TurboTax's published 2025-26 tiers run $0 to $149 do-it-yourself, $89 to $209 with expert help, state extra. The professional average base charge is $236. The crossover is not the fee: it is what mistakes cost.

Intuit published pricing, pulled 2026-08-02▸TurboTax · 2025-26 season. H&R Block publishes comparable tiers; its site blocked our automated pull on the check date, so no figures are printed. Professional average: $236 base 1040▸NATP · 2026.

• W-2 plus standard deduction: software territory, and arguably Free Edition territory. Paying $236 here buys reassurance, not dollars.
• One state, itemizing, some investments: a coin flip on price once you buy the upper DIY tier plus state. The professional starts winning on missed-deduction risk.
• Multi-state, K-1s, equity compensation, rental depreciation: software handles these technically but leaves the judgment to you; the expensive failures (basis errors, missed elections, wrong state sourcing) surface years later with penalties. This is where $236-plus buys a professional whose errors are insured and correctable.
• Entity returns: an 1120-S is not a consumer-software product in practice; the per-form shape (NSA's last public schedule put it at $717▸NSA · 2016-17 survey) reflects real preparer hours.

Count your forms and your uncertainty. Zero judgment calls: software. One or two judgment calls a year: software plus a one-off advisory hour is often optimal. Recurring judgment calls or an entity: professional, and the fee is a rounding error against the error cost it retires, worked through on is a CPA worth it. The cheaper-credential route for pure tax work: CPA vs EA. Full fee anatomy: CPA cost.