HR Block Review: I Walked Out!

My taxes were a little different this year so I didn't want to chance doing them myself and figured what the heck I'll walk into HR Block, sit there and let someone intelligent do it for me, and then walk out spending maybe $120 to have it done. WRONG!

When I got to my appointment I was paired up with a "tax advisor" who appeared to be smart. If only because he was a much older white dude that wore a cleaned, pressed button up shirt. I'm such a dork for assuming looks equals brains. While he was working through my return I had to correct him on three mistakes, the first being that he didn't know the difference between a dependent and an exemption.

While going through my paperwork he also felt it necessary to add an additional note to my tax return to tell the IRS that Although there are other people in my home (my parents and brother) that they work full time and therefore can not provide care during the work day for my daughter. This note he attached to my earned income credit. WTF? Since when does the IRS need an addition piece of paper (which HR Block charges for) to tell them about my daycare situation in order to get EIC? EIC has nothing to do with my daughters daycare. Perhaps, it would have made sense to attach it to my childcare credit, but then I really don't think its necessary to tell the IRS that my mom couldn't babysit. I am an adult single mother. I provide all financial needs for my daughter except for housing thanks to the parents. I pay $700 a month for daycare. Even if my mother had been home and not working it would not be her responsibility to provide care.

When all was said and done the HR Block tax advisor told me that my total would be $250. Plus an additional $30 if I wanted the fee to be taken out of my tax refund instead of paying right there. I asked him if I HAD to file with HR Block or if I could do it at home. He said "well ya if you can figure it out".

I was polite, I walked out of there not having spent a dime. I went home, signed in to Taxact and filed my taxes for free. My refund was in my bank account in less then 10 days and it was easier for me to do by myself, then it was watching the HR Block guy and making sure I was able to catch his mistakes as we went through them. I should have just gone with Taxact in the first place.

This one is going in the SAVE catagory. Consider it $280 dollars saved by just doing my taxes myself.