It used to be that only certified accountants knew how to navigate through all of the complicated steps of filing taxes in such a way as to yield the highest refund or the lowest liability possible. And of course in order to take advantage of the accountant’s knowledge, you had to pay a substantial hourly or flat rate — which often ended up negating a significant portion of any refund you might have had coming to you.
Some of the programs consist of the most basic tools and forms that the average person would need for filing an individual or joint return. Some of the more advanced programs have tons of features that would be helpful for those with more complicated taxes, such as business owners or people with lots of assets. These more advanced Tax Software programs would also be useful for people who have income from many different sources, including stocks, bonds, annuities, life insurance, court settlements, etc.