Speaking as a tax professional, it's more of an unintended consequence. In recent years, Congress and the Internal Revenue Service of the United States of America (and many states, also) have actually done a lot to simplify tax preparation for the overwhelming majority of people who need to file.My clients divide rather neatly into three bins:The unbanked people who use tax preparation services as a way to get quick refunds (about a third of our clients). Most have relatively simple returns that they could prepare themselves, get large refunds as a result of EITC and refundable child tax credits, and come to us only because they have no bank accounts and either (a) want a refund loan (which we no longer offer and which other providers will probably stop offering in a year or two), and/or (b) find it difficult or impossible to cash an IRS check. I'd like to see these people be able to have other options, frankly, and maybe the IRS will step in and issue refunds on prepaid cards the way that food stamps are often issued now.People who don't trust themselves to prepare their returns, live in (unwarranted, mostly) fear of making a mistake that will cause the IRS to check up on them, and want the security of a professional. This is about another third of our clients, and most could also prepare their returns themselves - in fact I encourage many of them to do just that - but it's hard for people in this category to overcome their fear of the bogey man.People who really do need a professional's advice, which is most of the remaining third. Proportionally, this is pretty close to an 80/20 rule - I probably spend about 80% of my actual working hours doing something for this group of clients.