H&R Block, well known for its in-office services, has been at the forefront of the online personal tax preparation game for decades. We tested the Self-Employed version, which offers comprehensive coverage of tax situations and specialized guidance for self-employed people (including gig workers and independent contractors) in a clear interface on desktop and mobile. The ability to get assistance from tax experts makes it an excellent option for personalized support. It falls just short of our Editors' Choice winner, Intuit TurboTax, which excels at tax topic support and usability. If you're looking to spend less, FreeTaxUSA doesn't offer quite as much assistance but is our top choice for submitting federal returns for free.
How Much Does H&R Block Cost?
H&R Block offers four main tiers of service. Its robust free plan, Free Online, supports Form 1040 and situations like retirement income, student expenses, unemployment, and W-2 income. You can also use it if you claim the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Credit (EITC). If your tax situation doesn't go beyond those aspects, you can file both your federal and state returns at no cost. H&R Block lists the federal and state forms this plan supports.
Deluxe ($35 for federal filing) adds AI-driven online help, free professional tax support via chat, itemized deductions, and a few other features. Premium ($65 federal) adds Schedules D and E. Self-Employed ($85 federal) adds Schedule C (which you need if you do gig work or are otherwise self-employed) and Schedule F (for farm income and expenses). Filing a state return is $37. Typically, these prices increase later in the tax season.
H&R Block’s prices are slightly lower than TurboTax’s, but many alternatives are even more affordable. For example, Cash App Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Tax) offers completely free federal and state filing. FreeTaxUSA is free for federal filing and charges $14.99 for state filing. But these services don’t offer as much help as H&R Block.
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The Tax Pro Review add-on gets you additional virtual help from CPAs, EAs, and H&R Block agents. With this service, you complete your return, and an H&R Block tax professional reviews, signs, and e-files it for you. You can also upload your tax documents or take them to an office for preparation and filing. Prices depend on the complexity of your tax profile.
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How Does H&R Block Work?
H&R Block's DIY service follows the same path as human tax professionals. The software's setup wizard asks about income first and then moves on to deductions, credits, and taxes. It asks questions in a conversational way, like, “Did you pay any vehicle and personal property taxes?” You respond by clicking buttons, choosing options from lists, and entering answers. You can save time on entering data and minimize errors by importing data from W-2s and 1099s instead of typing everything manually.
The wizard alternates between step-by-step walk-throughs and lists of tax situations that pertain to you. It continues to ask questions about your income and tax-deductible expenses until you cover everything relevant. H&R Block works in the background, performing all the necessary calculations and entering your answers on forms. As it walks you through the Q&A, it provides built-in help that’s far superior to what you get from Jackson Hewitt or Liberty Tax.
Getting Started With H&R Block
After you pick which version of the software to use (H&R Block can help you with this), you either enter personal information like your address, birth date, and Social Security number or import data from last year’s return from H&R Block or a competitor. Then, the site presents you with tax topics for income, such as Employment, Investments, and Small Business and Self-Employment. You select the ones that apply to you and let the wizard walk you through the Q&As before moving on to the other sections of the 1040.
Competitors work similarly, though H&R Block sometimes requires extra clicks because so many pages only pose one question; this is simply the way the site’s navigation tools work. TurboTax feels smoother.
Many Types of Help
H&R Block’s built-in help can be a tremendous resource. The site centralizes guidance in a right-side vertical pane, which keeps access uniform. For the most part, H&R Block's language is simple and understandable, with minimal suggestions to visit IRS instructions.
Specifically, H&R Block introduces topics on many pages with an explanation of what’s coming. Hyperlinks open related explanations in the help pane, which displays the three different types of help (the old Search, Ask AI, and Agent).
AI Tax Assist draws upon the company's tax expertise. It “converses” with you rather than just providing a list of search hits. The interview pages now contain links to AI Tax Assist when thorny topics like wash sales arise. It worked fine in testing, but I didn’t find it much more helpful than the site’s standard help search tool, which gives you links to related pages on the site and Q&As that prioritize the most relevant answers. The search results do tend to dribble off into more obscure responses after that. TaxAct and FreeTaxUSA do a better job of sticking to the best answers.
As long as you have the Search tool active in the right pane, you sometimes see context-sensitive help for the current page automatically. If you type in any words or phrases in the Search tab, you have to clear your query and any other entries to make the contextual help dynamic again.
Taxpayers can connect with both tax professionals and product support staff via chat. Expert help is free with all of H&R Block’s paid products. Most competitors charge for consultations with tax experts, so this is a huge advantage.
How Does H&R Block Deal With Self-Employment?
H&R Block walks you through all the many topics on Schedule C carefully and comprehensively. You must complete this section even if you just have a side gig with minimal income and expenses. Like its competitors, H&R has to build a business profile for you based on your answers to questions about things like your accounting method and inventory. It predicts your responses based on how other people doing similar work would answer, but you can edit every response. The software asks for income on 1099-NEC or 1099-K forms, as well as other income that isn't on them (usually cash and checks).
H&R Block then moves on to expenses, allowing you to select the ones that apply. These are standard business expenses that you must report on Schedule C, like advertising, home office, and office expenses. Whereas some competitors offer little guidance here, H&R Block includes simple, clear descriptions of each expense, which is extremely helpful if you are uncertain about what you can deduct. Even a new sole proprietor who hasn’t filed a Schedule C before can probably report their income and expenses using H&R Block.
Does H&R Block Perform a Final Review?
After you complete your federal return, H&R Block shows a page that summarizes the totals for the 1040’s primary sections, like Income, Deductions, and Total Tax. TaxSlayer breaks down each of those topic headers further, but you can click any header to go back to those pages in the interview. It's a great tool.
When you finish entering all your tax information, H&R Block runs its Federal Accuracy Review, which looks for errors and omissions in your return and lets you fix them. When I ran the process, it listed all the forms that weren’t yet available and offered to notify me when they became available. When it found something I hadn’t completed, it displayed a Fix Issue button, which took me back to the page with the problem or the beginning of the section if I needed to add more information.
Is H&R Block Safe to Use?
All of H&R Block's websites offer multiple layers of protection, including industry-standard web-browsing encryption technology and multi-factor authentication. The company says it protects and monitors your data 24/7. It also employs external security experts to perform audits and assess risks. Finally, H&R Block houses its data centers, networks, and servers in secure facilities.
Can You Use H&R Block to File Your Taxes From Your Phone?
I wouldn't hesitate to prepare my taxes entirely via H&R Block’s mobile apps (available for Android and iOS). They mirror the interface and navigation tools in the desktop version and feel fast. Both standard Search and AI Tax Assist tools are available, though there’s no extra room for a right vertical pane. It’s always easier to do tax prep and filing on a desktop or laptop just because of screen real estate. But you can switch between the platforms or use the mobile app exclusively to complete even a complex return.
Verdict: An Excellent Service That Puts Your Taxes Into Context
H&R Block thoroughly covers all the tax topics you need to know about while maintaining a professional yet friendly user experience. We also like that expert help doesn't cost anything extra with a paid plan. We highly recommend it, though TurboTax edges it out to earn our Editors' Choice award for its more state-of-the-art interface and equally thorough coverage of tax topics. If you can give up some help resources and design niceties, FreeTaxUSA is another Editors' Choice winner that lets you file your federal return for free.
H&R Block's friendly interface, extensive coverage of tax issues, and ubiquitous help make it a superb choice for both simple and complex tax returns.
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