The short version
- Last season 73,898,000 e-filed returns came through tax professionals and 65,323,000 were self-prepared. Both camps are enormous.
- Florida has no individual state return, so the free state filing bundled into some software is worth nothing here — and the free federal options go further than the marketing suggests.
- IRS Direct File is gone. Florida was one of the states where it worked in 2025. It did not run in 2026.
Most pages that answer this question are selling one of the two answers. The Internal Revenue Service publishes the actual split, and it refuses to settle the argument: through April 24, 2026, 73,898,000 of the season’s e-filed returns were filed by tax professionals and 65,323,000 were self-prepared, out of 139,221,000 e-filed in total. Self-filing grew faster year over year, but only modestly.
Paper is close to extinct either way — 139,221,000 of the 142,225,000 returns the IRS received by that date were filed electronically. Whoever prepares your return, it is going to the IRS the same way.
Two honest caveats before anyone quotes those numbers at you. The IRS does not define what it counts as self-prepared in these tables, so it is not safe to read the figure as “used tax software.” And the weekly statistics are national: there is no Florida breakdown in them at all.
What Florida actually changes
Florida has no individual income tax, and not by legislative choice — Article VII, section 5(a) of the state constitution bars one. There is no Florida return for an individual filer to prepare. Three consequences follow, and only the first is widely understood.
- “Free state filing” is not a feature here. The IRS lists “some free state tax preparation and filing” as the advantage of Free File guided software and “no state tax filing” as the limitation of Fillable Forms. For a Florida-only filer that distinction collapses to nothing.
- The free ceiling is effectively higher in Florida. A Floridian over the Free File income cutoff with a simple W-2 return can drop to Fillable Forms and give up only the hand-holding — not a second return they still had to file.
- The argument for hiring locally has to move to the business side. “A local professional knows your state system” is weak for a Florida individual and strong for a Florida business. We work through that in do I need a CPA in Florida.
The free federal options, and who qualifies
Before comparing paid software with a paid professional, check whether you should be paying anything. Four IRS programs remain.
| Program | Who it is for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| IRS Free File — guided software | Adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less for tax year 2025 | Eight partners offered it for the 2026 season, and each sets its own rules on top — income, age, state. The IRS figure is a ceiling, not a guarantee any one product will take you. |
| IRS Free File Fillable Forms | Any income. No AGI limit at all | Electronic forms with limited calculations and no state filing. You are your own preparer. In Florida the missing state filing costs you nothing. |
| VITA | People who generally make $69,000 or less, people with disabilities, and limited English-speaking taxpayers | In person, seasonal, and by appointment. The IRS page carrying that income figure states no tax year, so confirm the current one. |
| TCE | Taxpayers age 60 and older | Specializes in pensions and retirement income — the single most relevant free program in a state this many people retire to. Also seasonal. |
- Free File opened January 9, 2026, more than two weeks before the filing season itself opened on January 26.
- It stayed open past the April 15 deadline and remained available to extension filers through October 15, 2026. Filing late does not cost you the free option.
- Details and the current eligibility rules are on the IRS Free File page (opens in new tab) and, for VITA and TCE, the IRS free preparation page (opens in new tab). Whether a site near you has capacity is a separate question — the IRS locator is the only authority on that, and it is seasonal.
If you are looking for Direct File, it is gone
This matters in Florida more than in most states. Florida was one of the original twelve pilot states and one of the twenty-five states where IRS Direct File was available in the 2025 filing season. A Floridian who filed federally through the IRS itself last year and goes looking for it now finds nothing — the pages no longer exist.
On November 3, 2025 the IRS emailed the participating states to say the program was closed and “will not be available” in the 2026 season, with no launch date set. That is recorded in a Government Accountability Office decision (opens in new tab) quoting the IRS directly. Whether it ever comes back is not something anyone can currently source, so treat the four programs above as the list.
Where filing online genuinely wins
Said plainly, because a directory that never says it is not worth reading: most Florida filers do not need a CPA. Software is the right answer when:
- Your return is one or two W-2s and the standard deduction, with no business, rental or investment complexity.
- You want it done tonight. No appointment, no document drop-off, no waiting on someone else’s queue in early April.
- Cost is the deciding factor. Free, if you qualify above. Against that, a CPA runs roughly $285 to $320 for a straightforward Form 1040 on the standard deduction — and note that the survey figures behind that range bundle a state return a Florida filer does not have. The full breakdown is in how much a CPA costs in Florida.
- Nothing changed this year. Same job, same house, same state, same filing status. Prior-year carryover is one of the things software does well.
The weakness worth knowing is that software is confident whether or not it is right. It answers the questions it asks you. It will not raise the return you did not know you were supposed to file.
Where a Florida CPA earns the difference
Consumer 1040 software is built for a federal individual return. None of the following is a federal individual return, and all of it is Florida.
- A Florida business. Corporate income tax is 5.5% on entities taxed as corporations, filed on Form F-1120 — and a calendar-year filer is due May 1, not April 15. People assume the state deadline matches the federal one. It does not.
- Sales and use tax. 6% state, plus a discretionary county surtax of up to 2% that varies by county — three impose none — and gets reissued annually. Selling into Florida from elsewhere brings a registration obligation above $100,000 in taxable remote sales in the previous calendar year. This is frequently the real reason a small business needs help.
- Tangible personal property. Form DR-405, due April 1, with an exemption of up to $25,000 of assessed value that you only get if you file on time. This is the classic return people do not know exists until a penalty tells them.
- Reemployment tax if you have employees. Employer paid, and not something a 1040 product touches.
- You moved to or from Florida. Part-year and nonresident returns in the other state are where DIY goes wrong most expensively, and Florida attracts more of these than almost anywhere.
- An IRS letter, an audit, or back taxes. Software cannot represent you. Only a CPA, an enrolled agent or an attorney has unlimited representation rights — the credentials guide explains why that distinction is the one that matters.
The middle ground
There is a third option between doing it yourself and hiring a firm down the road: a remote service that hands your return to a professional without an office visit. It suits the reader whose return is too involved for a free product but who has no reason to meet anyone.
Remote preparation
Taxfyle (opens in new tab) matches you with a licensed tax professional who prepares and files your return remotely, for a flat fee quoted up front.
Be clear about what that is. A licensed tax professional is not necessarily a CPA, and not necessarily in Florida. That is fine for a federal return with no state component — which, for a Florida-only individual filer, is every return. It is not the same thing as hiring a Florida CPA, and we are not going to pretend it is.
Skip it if you run a business with Florida sales and use tax, corporate or tangible personal property filings; if you need someone to represent you before the IRS; if you want year-round planning rather than a return; or if you would rather sit across a desk from the person doing the work. Those are the cases this directory exists for.
We earn a commission if you sign up through this link, at no extra cost to you. It doesn't change what we recommend, and we say plainly whether something is free or paid before you click.
Will a professional get you a bigger refund?
Nobody can answer that from the published data, and you should be suspicious of anyone who says otherwise. The IRS reported an average refund of $3,268 through April 24, 2026 across every return — it does not break refunds down by who prepared them, and there is no Florida-only figure at all.
What is fair to say is narrower. A professional adds value where the return contains judgment: a business, a rental, equity compensation, a move between states, a year with something unusual in it. On a single W-2 with the standard deduction there is very little for anyone to find, which is exactly why paying for it feels like paying for reassurance. Sometimes reassurance is what you want. That is a legitimate reason, and it is a different reason from the refund.
Common questions
- Is it better to file taxes online or hire a CPA in Florida?
- Neither is the default answer. In the 2026 filing season the country split close to evenly: 73,898,000 e-filed returns came through tax professionals and 65,323,000 were self-prepared. One or two W-2s and the standard deduction is a software job. A business, a rental, income in more than one state, or a letter from the IRS is not.
- Can I still file for free in Florida?
- Federally, yes. IRS Free File guided software was open to filers with adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less for tax year 2025, and IRS Free File Fillable Forms has no income limit at all. VITA and TCE sites prepare returns for free in person for people who qualify. There is no Florida individual return to file either way.
- What happened to IRS Direct File?
- It is gone. The IRS emailed the states taking part on November 3, 2025 to say the program was closed and would not be available in the 2026 filing season, with no launch date set. Florida was one of the 25 states where it worked in 2025, so a Floridian who used it last year will not find it. Free File, Free File Fillable Forms, VITA and TCE are what remain.
- Does no state income tax mean I should just use software?
- For a simple individual return it removes one of the usual reasons to hire someone, because there is no Florida return to prepare. It also means the free state filing some Free File partners advertise is worth nothing to you. It changes nothing for a business, which still faces Florida corporate income tax, sales and use tax with the county surtax, reemployment tax and a tangible personal property return.
- Will a tax professional get me a bigger refund?
- The published statistics cannot tell you. The IRS reported an average refund of $3,268 through April 24, 2026, but it does not break refunds down by who prepared the return, and it publishes no Florida-only split. A professional earns the fee on returns that contain real decisions, not on a single W-2.
- I moved to Florida this year. Can I just file online?
- Be careful. Florida has no individual return, but the state you left may still want one, and part-year and nonresident returns are where consumer software is weakest and where the cost of getting it wrong is highest. That is a case for someone who handles multi-state returns.
Decided you want a person?
Every CPA listed here comes from the state license register. Tell us what you need and we’ll connect you with one in Florida — free, no obligation.
Get Matched — Free →Filing counts, the e-file share and the average refund are from the IRS filing season statistics for the week ending April 24, 2026 (opens in new tab); the free filing programs from the IRS; Direct File’s closure from GAO decision B-337954 (opens in new tab), which quotes the IRS; and Florida’s participation from IRS Publication 6035. Florida tax figures are from the Department of Revenue. Checked . The Free File income threshold, the partner count and the VITA figure are reset each season — confirm them with the IRS for the year you are filing. General information, not tax advice.