Why do people use H&R Block?

[Kenji4861]

I'm doing my taxes this weekend. My friends said they used H&R Block, but why?

They had to pay over $100. I can just use Turbotax which is $20-30. By using Turbotax..
I can also take my time and think of things I can deduct from my taxes.

So why do people use H&R Block? What is the advantage?

 

[oniq]

I used my brain which was free!

 

Originally posted by: oniq
I used my brain which was free!

 

[Mallow]

Some people have trust funds and other complicated retirement accounts. This can easily become out of reach from most average tax payers. They don't want to get audited and pay thousands in fee's if they do something incorrectly?

 

[KingNothing]

Because time is money. I paid $50 to have my taxes done, probably would've taken me 3 hours to do my own. That's easily worth it.

 

[StageLeft]

The average joe can make do with turbo or something. From my limited experience the monkeys at HR block which do regular taxes are no more competent than that software anyway. If you have something peculiar there is a good chance you'll need to pay a competent accountant, or just learn about the specifics of your case on the internet anyway. If I had big taxes and issues I'd take it to an account to be sure - but not a $15/hour 1040ez form-monkey at HRblock. They're prolly just using taxcut anyway.

 

[AmericasTeam]

H&R employees probably just use the Taxcut software to do your taxes.

 

[Oscar1613]

doesnt turbotax have spyware in it?

 

[Ionizer86]

Turbotax did have this nasty activation thingy or something. Not to mention Taxcut is cheaper
Some software online called Taxact is free, but it was harder to use than Taxcut and efiling is $8 instead of FAR. For us, it did come out with the same results as Taxcut though.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

If you are making series changes, such as owning multiple properties or are changing/borrowing from your retirement, it pays to have someone who knows what they are doing figure it out for you instead of you making a $20k mistake.

 

[dman]

I go to an accountant. He uses Turbo Tax of some sort. Overall, it costs a little more out of pocket but theres less doubt that I took a deduction I shouldn't have, and I can ask him questions / get advice for the next year as needed. Plus he keeps a copy of all my returns so I have an off-site backup as well. Not bad for about the same price as HR Block.

I don't think I'd go to a chain place for my taxes though, it seems like they wouldn't be any better than a tax software package.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
Turbotax did have this nasty activation thingy or something. Not to mention Taxcut is cheaper
Some software online called Taxact is free, but it was harder to use than Taxcut and efiling is $8 instead of FAR. For us, it did come out with the same results as Taxcut though.

baaah, Taxact is a breeze to use and is 9.95 including efiling.

Oh well, to each his own.

And to the poster who said "time is money", you are exactly right. I spent a total of 3-4 hours entering information, double checking and printing and efiling. Won't include the time of pulling records, cause I would have had to do it regardless of doing it myself or using H&R Block. To some people 3-4 hours of work and the comfort that an "expert" is handling your file is worth it.