Reply #6: Taxes have become much more complicated in recent years.

[hedgehog]

Each special tax credit or deduction requires its own form to determine eligibility. I finally broke down and bought a computerized tax program when I got tired of having to download extra forms, spend 15 minutes transferring information from the 1020, doing all the calculations and finding out I made $1000 too much to be eligible. Then there was the entire question of taking a deduction here or a Hope credit there for education expenses.