QuickBooks-Blog

On New Year’s Day, H&R Block is CLOSED!

But I’m here at my BlockTax office, ready to serve you and start your taxes.

I completed my first two new client returns on New Year's Day. One specifically came to BlockTax because H&R Block is closed! Both clients will soon get $4,000+ more than they paid IRS!

I have 40+ years of CPA tax experience. I’m also a nationally-known QuickBooks Advanced Certified ProAdvisor, with unique credentials.

After April 15, H&R Block is closed at almost all offices. H&R mainly uses part-time students and housewives. Many have no college degree or tax experience and minimal H&R training. H&R also hires accountants who can’t hold regular year-round jobs. You probably know more about taxes than most H&R Block tax preparers do.

My year-round CPA tax expertise even lets me beat the prices at H&R Block and other tax services, GUARANTEED!

NOW, who do you think can best serve your tax and accounting needs?

You decide!

Then contact Mike Block CPA,

almost 24/7/365

Happy New Year!

 

H&R Block Down

H&R Block net income is down almost 20% in 2 years.

H&R Block fiscal 2011 net income from continuing operations was $419 million. H&R Block 2010 net from this was down to $489 million, compared to $513 million in the prior-year. Since April, 2010 two H&R Block CEOs, its CFO and its Legal counsel stepped down. Also stepping down was Henry Bloch's son, due to:

• An “ill-timed” $2 billion stock buyback authorization.
• An “overly optimistic” 2010 financial plan.
• The re-election of the H&R Block chairman.
• Bowing to pressure from short-term oriented shareholders.
• Putting long-term shareholder value at greater risk.
• Tax pricing (if the average charge increased consistent with inflation it would be much less).
• The inability to present a compelling value proposition.
• Weakened competitiveness in the growing do-it-yourself online tax market.
• A CEO commuting to company headquarters
• A flawed compensation package (improper incentive components, overly generous).
• The H&R Block customer base going down a staggering two million customers in two years.

This followed H&R Block going down when McGladrey & Pullen, a large CPA firm, cut ties, because H&R Block: 

• Did not follow through on promises to invest in M&P's services.
• Having different business strategies and goals.
• Not consulting with M&P before making strategic commitments.
• Overcharging for leased space, back-office services, payroll, etc.
• Treating M&P as if it owned it, when it did not.

M&P also could not penetrate some industries because the marketplace did not understand its H&R Block relationship,

H&R Block

Henry Bloch, the “H” in H&R Block, needs no introduction to accountants, or the millions of taxpayers whose returns have been prepared by the firm — and the industry — he spawned.

Yet there are many fascinating details about the man that are revealed in “Many Happy Returns,” a biography written by his son Thomas, who himself has served as president and chief executive at Block.

Henry Bloch is an unlikely American hero, according to his son. Unlikely? Perhaps. Hero? Absolutely. From his days as a navigator onboard a B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II, to founding and growing H&R Block, to his current charitable and philanthropic endeavors, Henry has lived a life of purpose. The war itself taught Henry to be a fatalist.

“I never knew what the next day would bring,” he said. “But I figured I had a job to do, and I would give it my all.” The story includes practical wisdom for tax return preparers and business startups, as well as lessons applicable to all facets of life.

“I had felt for some time that there were a lot of lessons to be learned from dad’s experiences,” Thomas told me in an interview. “I discussed this with him, but he always dismissed it. He felt it was vain to have a book written about him. But in a moment of weakness, he agreed to it., and I think he enjoyed the process.”

Tom interviewed his father during regular hour-and-a-half sessions over more than a year. “Although I thought I knew everything there was to know about dad, I actually learned a lot during the process that I didn’t know before,” he said.

An early business plan crafted by older brother Leon listed tax preparation fourth on a list of possible service lines for the brothers’ business — behind bookkeeping, secretarial services and advertising.

Although it is not strictly a business or management book, there are lessons to be learned, observed Thomas. The most important lesson? “Never give up,” he told me. “He certainly didn’t give up. He was relatively unsuccessful as an entrepreneur for eight years. He could so easily have given up, but he never did.” Henry and his brother Richard founded H&R Block in Kansas City, Mo., in 1955, and called it Block instead of Bloch because it was easier for clients to spell.

Another lesson is to do what you love, said Thomas. “Don’t necessarily try to make the most money,” he added. “He was not motivated to get rich. Instead, he wanted to do something where he was making a difference and helping others.”

“That was really a key ingredient in the early success of the firm,” he said. “In the early years they charged $5 per return. He could easily have raised the price, since they were the only game in town for the market they were serving. He didn’t, because he was more interested in solidifying a foothold in the market than in making lots of money. In retrospect it was an important decision to develop the industry rather than maximize profits.”

Despite the current interest in tax reform, Bloch doesn’t envision a major simplification of the Tax Code. “The Tax Code is not used just to raise money for our government to operate, but to achieve social and economic objectives. It will be very difficult to enact major simplification without disrupting those objectives.”

Henry Bloch’s legacy, which continues to this day, includes creating a global industry and helping millions of people. Not bad. As Thomas sums up his father’s success, it is rooted in his response to two fundamental questions: Are you doing what you love, and are you leaving the world a better place?

Comment

This outrageous puff piece made me unsubscribe from AcountingToday. H&R Block should have been charged under the RICO Act for its criminal conspiracy. It did not disclose Refund Anticipation Loan kickbacks in federally required true annual interest calculations. There were billions of dollars in class action suits over this and other civil and criminal charges, concerning improper tax, ad and investment violations. One attorney was ordered off a case and referred to the Bar Association for prosecution.

That is why the federal Comptroller of the Currency recently barred H&R ALONE from making RALs (refund anticipation advances). H&R now has very misleading ads that sound like RALs. These Refund Anticipation advances are nothing more than the ability to designate a bank account for income tax refunds, which we all can do without H&R. Due to this, H&R has done around 10% less returns a year for 5 years and should have a far bigger drop this year. There are a series of related posts on my QuickBooks-Blog.

Posted by: MikeBlockCPA | January 18, 2011 2:36 PM

 

H&R Block Sues to Defraud (rewritten)

Others wrote about this as H&R Block takes HSBC to court to save RALs. I used H&R Sues to Defraud due to the many class action lawsuits against H&R Block over RALs.

RALs are income tax refund anticipation loans, which often carry interest rates of 100%+ (a former long time H&R employee said he often saw annual rates of 200% to 300% a year). H&R RALs involved billions in lawsuits and very large settlements. Many related to big undisclosed kickbacks H&R Block got from finance companies. H&R did not count these kickbacks in calculating required true annual interest rates. Accordingly, it was no accident or simple fraud, but a probable deliberate management decision to commit massive fraud.

This top management decision (lead corporate attorney) also applies to when H&R induced one attorney to expand his class to include all plaintiffs in other suits, so they could exclude other attorneys. Then they settled with this attorney for a low amount. An appeals court overturned the effort, barred the attorney from further involvement and, I believe, referred him to the Bar Association for sanctions. These are some of the reasons I believe there should have been a RICO Act seizure of all H&R assets, with top executives in jail. Instead, H&R Sues to Defraud by continuing RALs.

There was such a big stink from RAL practices that Internal Revenue will no longer have an indicator of initial RAL return acceptance. Without this, many banks will drop RALs as unsafe. HSBC may have an agreement with H&R to issue RALs, but it appears to not be taking steps with Internal Revenue to get them. Therefore, now H&R sues to defraud (at least mislead) clients and possibly HSBC.

 

U-verse and H&R Block Fraud

Scott Wilder, a former top person at Intuit, is a good friend. His Facebook posts seem to show that he has been waiting for AT&T U-verse web service for a month. I recently wrote Scott an earlier version of this on Facebook.

- - - - -

I hate AOL with a passion, but I would sooner take AOL, your in-law's wi-fi or ANYTHING ELSE over U-verse. Why would a very smart and extremely computer literate person like you fail to investigate the comments of U-verse customers? For gosh sakes Scott, there are 105,000 Google links to U-verse sucks!

As to an earlier comment (some companies sue over social network statements), truth is a total defense to libel or slander claims. Many original IBM PC development team members have been my friends since before they developed the PC. The third (unpublicized) team member convinced Bill Gates to stop giving away Basic (and make it a business). He later convinced IBM to buy an operating system from Bill, when he knew Bill did not have one. These people will gladly put their reputation on the line, to talk about U-verse fraud in speed claims.

Likewise, I have long said some H&R Block acts were fraud. This H&R Block fraud involved refund anticipation loans, investment advice, etc. H&R Block fraud caused many big class action lawsuits by State Attorneys and individuals. The H&R Block fraud settlements confirm this. There also is H&R Block fraud I IRS exam representation ads. An H&R manager, who worked for me long ago, added to my knowledge.

H&R Block fraud also involves an attack on my functional BlockTax trademark (see http://BlockTax.com/). It bears no resemblance to their bland green block. The attack, by an H&R Block Cayman (??) subsidiary, uses a local H&R Block attorney! It is an H&R Block fraud because they had a blocktax trademark, but dropped it in 1993. It also is H&R Block fraud to make legal damage claims with no proof of damages. There can be no such proof, as only I know how often I got called by someone looking for H&R (about once a month as Michael Block tax accountant, vs once a year since I became BlockTax). There also can be no proof because only I know how many times I converted confused H&R clients into my clients: NEVER, in 45 years!

Why would any CPA want to take advantage of some confused person, looking for cheap H&R non-CPAs and non-Internal Revenue Enrolled Agents? Why especially would a CPA take advantage of people not smart or careful enough to see the total lack of H&R integrity or quality?

Most of all, why would a CPA associate himself with the H&R Block fraud reputation if he already had a national reputation for QuickBooks and cutting taxes?

Truth is a total defense to a libel or slander claim, so bring it on!