H&R Block is entering this tax season with a greater focus on offering the kind of DIY financial software that has given the company so much competition in recent years.
"Taxes have been this opaque industry, really slow to change," CEO Jeff Jones told Cheddar. "We're bringing a lot of digital innovation to what we call our human advantage."
The company has promoted its Tax Pro Go option, which allows customers to upload their tax documents digitally and leave the rest to a trained tax professional, as well as DIY options that range in price from free to $79.99 for small businesses and the self-employed.
"If you're a DIY filer, this year with Online Assist you can push a button and on-demand get all of your questions answered for you without leaving home," Jones said.
The strategy straddles the line between H&R Block's primary business of brick-and-mortar tax preparation services and the online self-preparation software that is changing the industry.
The number of Americans who prepared their own returns was up 3.3 percent in 2019, according to IRS data. H&R Block ($HRB) competitors such as TurboTax, meanwhile, have seen stocks rise significantly over the last five years, whereas H&R Block's have slumped.
In addition to embracing technology, the company has made an effort to draw customers back in with price cuts, which Jones said have increased customer satisfaction over the last year.
"We reset our financials a little over a year ago and just said to the market we knew our prices had gotten too high and we had to improve quality," Jones said.
Still, the executive is banking on the customer's interest in peace-of-mind to maintain H&R Block's primary business.
"If you think about the market in general, about 55 percent of all taxpayers get help. 45 percent do taxes themselves," Jones said. "That mix really hasn't changed a lot over time, and I think the big reason comes back to confidence. Taxes create so much anxiety. It's a stressful topic, and people want to get the best outcome possible."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
