Your description of this "black box" of paying too much or too little taxes and the associated impact on the budget (families counting on refund that is not there or it's too little, or they expect to pay and then there is a refund, just the unknown factor) is a common problem for many people, but the source of it goes back to preparing one's own taxes. While it is okay to seek professional help with taxes, I would highly recommend everyone take advantage of the advancement of tax preparation software systems, based on multiple reasons. The first one is if you seek the help of seasonal tax preparation companies, they usually staff their offices with seasonal workers for the tax reason. I have no doubt that they are competent individuals, but I'm familiar with the process and they are mostly individuals that go through a very limited training for the particular task and they know just how to operate the system, meaning they know how to enter information into the tax prep software. So, they are equally likely to enter something wrong as you. At the same time, a system like TurboTax is so advanced now that it will most likely pull your tax information from your employer's database (with your permission of course) and you don't have to put much more than few basic personal details and at the same time, the system has safeguards (similar to online banking) that prevents you from entering numbers in the wrong lines or places. Finally, Turbo Tax (and I'm sure there are many good ones out there, but I have only used TurboTax for the last 15 years and it is easy and cheap) is interactive as it will try to find the best deductions for you by asking you questions about your finances and maximize your return and at the same time fine tune the right ongoing deduction from your paycheck so you are paying just the right amount, and I doubt anyone regardless of their level of professionalism cares about your taxes and finances as much as you, so this gives you the opportunity to gain control over your own taxes and deduction.

What is the best way to answer to that?