Are you looking for a reliable and affordable way to prepare your taxes? Let our tax professionals help you calculate your starting price, based on your life and the tax forms you need. At H&R Block, you can get the same quality of service as TurboTax at a lower cost. Plus, the free version is more comprehensive than other services. The cost of filing taxes depends on the complexity of your return and the forms you need.
Simple returns are free for both federal and state taxes. This includes unemployment income, retirement income, W-2 income, and interest and dividend income. You can also apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the child tax credit, and deductions such as tuition and interest on student loans. Tax form import and load capabilities save a lot of time, but if you're okay with entering the numbers on your own and want to save some money, there are cheaper (or free) options.
With all versions except computer software, you can prepare your return for free, you only pay when it's time to file. Tax laws change periodically, and you should consult with a tax professional for the most up-to-date advice. However, if your taxes are complicated or if you want to fully explore your options, it may be worthwhile to carefully compare H&R Block with competing tax services. While preparing your return, if you try to add income, deductions or tax credits not allowed by the version you are on, the software will ask you to upgrade and tell you how much the most expensive package costs.
Most licensed tax preparation professionals are fiduciaries, which means they must act in the best interest of their clients. Many people care about filing taxes, but there are a number of tax reporting services to make the process easier. The annual tax season is inevitable, and you must decide if you want to do things yourself, hire someone to prepare your tax return, or something in between. The software will ask you to enter simple information found on tax documents, such as a Form W-4, and then use that information to calculate your tax return.
One of them is H&R Block, a retail tax firm similar to competitors like Jackson Hewitt and Liberty Tax Service. H&R Block claims that its tax professionals have access to its Tax Institute, which mainly has certified public accountants (CPAs), enrolled agents, tax lawyers and former IRS agents. Tax professionals at H&R Block have an average of 10 years of tax filing experience and more than 100 hours of tax training. Therefore, these tax professionals only contact the Tax Institute when they have questions that their training has not prepared them to answer. In return, the IRS pledged to “not compete” with the Consortium in providing free online tax return preparation and filing services to taxpayers.
For do-it-yourselfers, H&R Block makes it easy to prepare taxes by guiding them through the process with interview questions, clear instructions, and detailed explanations of the different types of income, deductions and tax credits. So how much does it cost to prepare taxes at H&R Block? The answer depends on the complexity of your return and the forms you need. If your taxes are more complicated or if you want to fully explore your options, it may be worthwhile to carefully compare H&R Block with competing tax services.