The hardest part of preparing my tax return was organizing the supporting documents and finding the prior year (2020) tax returns. The ability to download payroll and investment activities had an immense impact in not having to transfer the required information from the "paper source", reducing the potential in transposition errors, and tedious activity.
In the prior filings, it would consume approximately a weekend to complete and file both the state and federal returns. This year (and prior 2 - 3 years), the task was completed in one day. Filing electronically has also been a great option by not having to assemble the correct or proper "hard copy" forms to each of the taxing authority and wondering if the tax returns will not get lost in the "paper shuffle".
Pros: Easy to prepare, Easy to import documents, Fast
Bought NY State with Fed. Fed worked great a usual. Could not file NY on line due to issues with S.T. Capital gains/losses from some option sales in my brokerage account. Had to use a "free" NY State filing service recommended by NY State in order to file... That part was disappointing. The Fed side smooth as silk as always....
Pros: Easy to prepare, Maximizes refund, Easy to import documents, Fast
Easy to enter data by going through questions. Only issue this year was download from brokerage account did not work. It has worked in the past so don't know what occurred with this year's program.
For New York State return, your software said I must efile, then told me I could not efile, leaving me to do outside research to figure out what to do. You gave contradictory instructions!