H&R Block vs. TurboTax vs. Jackson Hewitt
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H&R Block
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H&R Block offers 4 tiers of online tax preparation programs for the 2021 filing season: Free, Deluxe, Premium, and Self-Employed. The company also offers options of varying support from its tax professionals: do it yourself with the help of a tax pro, upload your documents for a tax pro to do it for you, or make an appointment to sit with the tax pro who is doing your taxes.
Free Edition
The Free online edition should suit you just fine if you have only W-2 income and/or unemployment income, and you rent your home. You can use this edition to add dependent info too. A free state return is included.
Deluxe Edition
The Deluxe online plan, H&R Block’s next tier, is designed for homeowners, investors, those with retirement income, and those who’ve made contributions to health savings accounts. It offers support for stock and other investment sales, and it also covers home-mortgage interest deductions, charitable giving deductions, and all other itemized deductions if you don’t want to claim the standard deduction. It costs $55, and that includes support for most Form 1099s, free tech support, and a “drag and drop” feature that permits the free importing of current and past-year data. Plan to spend an extra $45 for each state return filed.
Premium Edition
The next plan is the Premium online tier, coming in at $75, including one free state return; additional state returns are $45. This should meet the needs of freelancers and independent contractors who may have more than one 1099 but with deductible business expenses of less than $5,000, and it also accommodates investors who own rental property or have sold stock.
Premium & Business Edition
H&R Block also offers a Premium & Business online edition to serve the more than 60 million freelancers, independent contractors, and other self-employed taxpayers, including the estimated over three in 10 Americans who rely on gig work for their primary income. Among its features are an import of Uber driver tax information and full support for common tax situations faced by self-employed individuals. This product costs $115 including a state return, plus an additional $45 for each additional state tax return. Like the Premium version, the Premium & Business edition also includes support for rental property owners.
Other Options
Finally, you can choose to add H&R Block’s Online Assist for unlimited help, starting at $70 plus $40 for a state filing for the Basic edition, the Deluxe package is $110 plus $50 for a state filing, the Premium is $160 with $50 for a state filing. and topping out at $195 plus $50 for a state filing for Self-Employed Online Assist. In addition to all of the features and services included in the four tiers, this add-on allows for a tax professional’s review and double check of your return, as well as officially signing the return before filing it for you.
All programs include live technical support if you run into a problem, along with a screen share feature that allows you to show where you’re having difficulty. H&R Block offers the ever-popular W-2 capture feature, so you can simply snap a pic of your form without entering all that tedious information by hand. And you can import your old returns if you did your taxes with another software provider in previous years.