H&R Block and TurboTax now have 2009 Income Tax Calculators available, and I was just wondering if they are anywhere near accurate?

I put my spouse's and my wages in thus far, and it turned out that our return should be around $12,000? It seems too large an amount to get back, we have never received that much back although we've brought in the same amount of money every year...

The calculators are only as accurate as the information you put into them. Since they are not complete returns, they are based on estimates.

Agreed; the tax calculators usually do not factor in such contingencies as the Alternative Minimum Tax or certain credits, so their results should be treated with a bit of skepticism.

Okay, haha. I thought it was quite crazy... there's no way we could get back that much, especially since we have made the same amount of money for about two years in a row now..