For most people who get most of their income from a job or two, the 1040 EZ form ...or one of the free (for people earning like under $50K) on-line tax prep services, as others have already pointed out, linked from the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/ are sufficient...

For people earning much income from other sources, such as their own business, etc they'd likely do better to hire a CPA ... it's not cheap, but it's worthwhile in the longrun.

On a related subject ... the whole refund thing is a sad commentary about the tax system ... many people have been brainwashed to think they get money back ... as if the money is free or something (ok, sometimes it is, such as for those who qualify for the earned income credit, etc) ... generally, it's not free money, but rather is excess that people have paid in and now get back with no interest.

A better question to consider at tax time is how much tax did one pay ... and that includes social security; it's very likely young people who pay into SS today will see little to none of it; it's basically a tax.

Most have no idea how much they really pay ... and that's by design - the people who came up with the withholding scheme knew this; income tax was originally intended only for the very rich, not the typical wage earner ... people tended to accept the larger, ever-expanding scope of the income tax out of ignorance ... if everyone had to make quarterly lump payments, as some have to do, (monthly or even more frequent, such for small business owners), there would be a tax revolt in this country overnight.

Ron