H&R Block Slims Down

According to the latest report, H&R Block has closed 400 retail locations. I found a quote by Block President and CEO Russ Smyth very interesting.

“We operate in a challenging and competitive environment, and to be successful we must find new ways to provide better value to our clients,” said Block president and CEO Russ Smyth in a statement. “This requires that we narrow our focus and invest in a few key initiatives that will have the greatest impact on attracting and retaining clients in our retail and digital channels, while eliminating other activities and their related costs.”

So H&R Block closed down 400 locations in order to provide better "value" to it's clients. You know what it's going to do with the money it saved by closing those 400 locations? It plans "to allocate more resources toward client growth initiatives." That's a fancy way of saying advertising.

So to provide better "value" for its' clients, H&R Block is going to spend more money on advertising. Here's an idea. Why not spend the $140 million on training employees so they actually know something about taxes? H&R Block is losing clients because the majority of the tax preparers know little about actual tax law.

Incite Tax & Accounting has a great retention rate because we actually provide value for our clients in the form of excellent tax knowledge. That knowledge comes out as we make sure our clients pay the legal minimum on their tax bill.

That being said...we sure wouldn't mind have $140 million to spend on advertising to get the word out that we are less expensive than H&R Block and we actually know taxes.