You might be able to file 2009 income tax for free using IRS home page.  The IRS site supports their own links for freefile and IRS e_file.  I’ve taken advantage of electronic filing for years.  Filing a paperless return makes perfect sense for several reasons.  For the 2009 tax year your maximum 401k deduction is $16,500.  If you are 50 or over, then you can add $5500 “catch up” to that amount.  Here is a very simply chart.  In addition to using the $401k technique, don’t forget that you may be able to avoid taxes by using an IRA too.  The traditional IRA 2009 limit is $5000 for 49 and under and $6000 for 50 and over.  I always buy Turbo Tax.  I like Turbo Tax because it gives you easy to understand answers to your questions, and provides examples to follow.  Last year, one of my friends did his income tax using Turbo Tax with no prior experience.  A professional wanted to charge him a fee based on his income which made him so mad he simply bought Turbo Tax and did his own return.  It ended up saving himself about 800 dollars.  I have also amended my tax return after submitting with Turbo Tax, which is very easy to do too.