It took me about that long to do both fed and state with Free File Fillable Forms. I was so surprised, I wondered why I didn't check it out sooner. I think most Americans can do this just as easily.
I know folks outside the U.S. like to riff on us for our complicated taxes and the pay-for filing lobbies, and yes, they have reason to. But, I really think the issue is that we folk in the U.S. are just too scared to try what really is a simpler method.
I do Free File Fillable Forms, and I’m something of an amateur tax expert - friends and family come to me for advice. But yet every year there’s some weird edge case that I have to figure out by digging through the Schedule D instructions or the 1040 instructions or… Sometimes I’ll go through one of the paid systems up until the submission step where you have to pay, to make sure that my numbers line up.
The system is just really complicated if you have anything weird, and “anything weird” happens a lot.
I know folks outside the U.S. like to riff on us for our complicated taxes and the pay-for filing lobbies, and yes, they have reason to. But, I really think the issue is that we folk in the U.S. are just too scared to try what really is a simpler method.