Hey, guys.
It's Robert from The College Investor here, and we are diving into our H&R Block tax software
review.
This is for the 2017-2018 tax season, and we are excited to share that H&R Block is
our number one pick for tax filing software this year for a awesome reason, and that is
their Free File Online.
H&R Block really stepped up their game with a few things, and one is that they added More
Zero, and they added this 1040 with Schedule A to their free filing.
What that means is, unlike other ones like TurboTax, you can actually get some child
tax credits, some earned income tax credit, and some other different things on Free File
than you can with other tax software.
That's a huge advantage.
The other thing that H&R Block has done is, they've lowered their prices, which is really
cool.
If you come over here, we're going to go to the Compare Online Filing Options, and here
are their different options this year.
Their Free File Online is definitely zero, but their Deluxe is 34.99.
Their Premium is 54.99, and they have their Self-Employed Online, 74.99.
All of those come under what you pay at TurboTax, which didn't happen last year.
H&R Block was actually more expensive, and so we are super excited to see how they lowered
their prices this year, and this More Zero just is awesome.
Let's dive in.
Let me show you how easy it is to use H&R Block, especially because you might not have
used them before.
Oh, they sent me a security code here.
Let's enter what this security code is here.
That's funny.
It might be new for you to use, though, especially if you're considering switching to a different
provider.
All right.
Bam.
Keeping things secure.
I like it.
Two-factor authentication, wherever it is.
Oh, man.
Oh, that's crazy stuff that they want me to do in here.
All right.
We will have to get all these blurred out.
Cool.
Updated.
There we go.
Loading.
All right, my 2017 taxes.
We are kicking off the tax season here.
Before we get started, I'm going with John Wick this year.
If you haven't seen any of my other reviews yet, check it out.
How did you file your taxes last year?
I used my own tax prep company.
It's cool, because if you use TurboTax, you can import your TurboTax files.
You can import a PDF.
I'm not going to import anything.
We're just going to roll with it here.
You guys can see their returns.
I'm single.
My date of birth, 02/02/1985.
No, John's not deceased.
My Social Security number.
I had to come up with a crazy one last time.
They have like checks here to see if it's like valid.
Were you a student?
No, I was not a student, thank you for asking.
Can you be claimed on someone else's return?
No, I cannot.
Are you legally blind or disabled?
No.
Were you a U.S. citizen?
Yes, I was.
Did you live in the U.S.? Yes, I did.
Do you have any dependents?
I'm going to go with no this time.
Did you have a child that lived with you who's not a dependent?
No, and my tax filing status is single.
Did I have a W-2?
I did.
Who was my employer?
We were saying Super Awesome Company.
42-4445555.
Next, and then Super Awesome Company was at 500 San Diego Avenue, San Diego, California,
920.
Okay.
John Wick.
My employee's address is 500 San Diego ... I better probably pick a different one.
I don't live at my employer.
We're going to do San Diego.
But I could live like right down the street from my employer.
Right?
All right, wages and tips.
All right, we got ... What should we make here?
We made 62,714, 2,714, and we had 10,126 withheld, and we had 62,714.
What was that?
Three ... 62,714, and that should be 1,848 or something like that.
All right, and you put your state income in here.
62,714, and then state tax paid.
I paid 3,397.
Perfect.
Next.
Tell us if any of those apply.
No.
"We've used the taxes you've already paid," and we've got 1,000 bucks back.
Wow, Super Awesome Company.
I love it.
"What do you do for Super Awesome Company?"
I am a manager, why not?
I'll be an assistant manager.
Cool.
Yeah.
"Next, share your contract information with us."
We'll be 619-555-5555.
"This is required by the IRS."
"Did you live in California?"
I did.
"Did you live in California all year?"
I did.
"Did you earn money in any other states besides California?"
Nope, I did not.
"Do you have any foreign accounts or assets?"
No, I don't.
"This is something the IRS requires us to ask."
That's funny.
Do you have other income I need to tell you about?
Yes.
No, I don't need any plus.
I want to keep it free here.
I just have interest income.
Perfect.
Next.
My bank is USAA, and I made $109.
Perfect.
Next.
John, do you need to tell us about any other income?
No, I'm done.
Do you have any foreign account?
Nope.
All right, there we go.
My refund, based on your income, your federal tax is that.
You haven't qualified for any deductions or credits.
Yeah, let's start working on my deductions, because that's what really makes a difference.
I have that, I have that, I have that, and I have that.
Let's try this.
Bam.
"Tell us about your real estate taxes."
Well, I lived at what ... Shoot, I forget what ... 550 San Diego Avenue.
I paid $6,200 in taxes.
Next.
All right, now I'm getting some stuff.
Real estate taxes I already owe.
Okay.
Okay, this got a little confusing, so I want to revisit.
Personal, Acura.
Yeah.
I paid like $109, for some reason.
Student loan interest.
I will go with SoFi, and I've paid 1,200 bucks.
All right.
So calculate your sales tax.
You can do the IRS standard amount so that you don't have to do anything.
Boom.
I'll deduct my income taxes.
Cool.
All right, and now I'm done.
"John, itemizing your deductions is the best choice."
All right.
As long as you make the best choice for me, that's great.
Cool.
You know what I didn't see back there, was like the mortgage interest deduction.
Let's see.
I have real estate taxes.
I didn't see a student loan interest.
Maybe that I choose like not having a house.
Let's see here.
Well, let's go through, and we'll ... Let me go find it in a minute.
Cool.
Next.
All right.
Loading my credits.
I don't have any of those.
Family, home and vehicle.
Yes.
All right.
I swear I'm missing something here.
Let's see.
Yes, I do.
All right, here we go.
Mortgage interest.
Why not give me mortgage interest?
There we go.
"Tell us about your mortgage."
I have ... This is ... No.
The lender's name is Wells Fargo, paid like $8,800 on my mortgage.
Next.
I already reported my real estate taxes.
There we go.
Now my refund's going in the right direction here.
All right.
That was weird.
I don't know why that didn't come up in the first screen, but it was interesting that
it didn't.
If you ever figure that out, you need to go to the summary here and then hit that next
thing.
Cool.
I think we got everything covered here.
I'm done.
State, your taxes.
All good.
Did I have health care?
Did I have anything uncommon?
Nope.
Everyone in my household was covered all year, health insurance through an employer.
Great.
I'm all done.
Let's go and wrap this thing up.
Perfect, and then next steps will go to Accuracy Review.
Checking calculations.
Good news.
It's all there.
Super easy.
If you upgrade, they will store it all for six years for you.
If you don't upgrade, they only store it for one year with you, so keep that in mind.
I am not going to upgrade, though.
H&R Block Plus.
No.
I'm good.
Let's do free.
Unfortunately, California is not ready yet.
It'll be available 1/3.
That's a bummer, but I think it's going to be pretty straightforward to go through the
whole thing when you get it, but hopefully you could see how easy it was.
Federal return is super easy.
The overview is pretty easy.
We love H&R Block.
The pricing is pretty easy.
Typically, as you can see, it's not as sexy-looking as TurboTax is.
TurboTax really does make it easy.
You notice we missed the mortgage interest on here, but it wasn't hard to find, and I'm
sure I was just clicking very fast because I wanted to show you this review, but it's
important that that ease of use is there.
TurboTax knocks ease of use out of the park, but H&R Block is so close behind them with
ease of use, but they really just take the cake this year with their pricing structure
and their More Zero, so we recommend H&R Block is our first choice in 2017-2018 tax year.
Hopefully, you guys found it easy.
If you did, please like this video, subscribe to the YouTube channel, and if you're reading
this on the blog, please leave a comment.
Let me know your experiences with H&R Block.
It goes a long way to formulating our reviews of these tax software companies.