The commercials show salesmen jerking people around and then the voice-over guy says that H&R Block will do simple federal tax returns for free, but what’s the point of the people first promising a free item, then taking it back?
I pretty sure the premise is “No other company would give away their stuff for free.”
They promise a free item to get customers, and then take it back to make a profit. Isn’t that obvious?
And their ‘free’ isn’t FREE.
Federal is ‘free’… state is $39.99. AND>>> Simply because I have a 401K, it ended up costing me $74. I was pissed. REALLY pissed.
(My bolding) If I read the fine print in the commercial correctly, it says they will do your 1040 EZ for free. I’m guessing they charge out the wazoo for the regular 1040 form.
OK, that makes sense.
I suspect they are hoping to make some money off refund anticipation loans, which are about as predatory as payday loans.
That and like what happened with PapSett they hope your return really is more complicated than a 1040EZ so you’re suckered into paying for the more expensive returns. They charge more for every single paper they have to deal with. It can quickly get really pricey.
They charge by the form, many private accountants charge by the hour. It really depends on the type of return you do in that case for which is cheaper. You also pay when you submit the return; you can technically walk out if you don’t like the price. It is a supreme dick move to waste an hour of someone’s time then refuse to pay, but we didn’t have much recourse when I was there.
You can do your taxes for free online as well, but they all charge for state. That’s pretty standard. As far as 401k, what do you mean you “have” one? Just took deductions from your paycheck with code “D” on the W2? Yeah that should be included, but if you took money out, that can be a PITA for the tax preparer.
The easy tax returns generally mean: just W2s, no kids, no uncommon deductions. 1040EZ basically.
As far as the RALs, we really couldn’t shake people off with a stick. I tried to explain to low-income people that they could get it pretty fast if they did direct deposit, but they put their withholding allowances on the W4 down to 0 so they could get a big refund because they don’t have great money management skills. A refund is like “free money,” even if they intuitively know it is not, and thus it is no problem to lose some of it so that they can pay bills or but stuff immediately.