The story
Founded by Henry W. Bloch and Richard Bloch on Jan 25, 1955, in Kansas City.1
Founding
During World War II, Henry W. Bloch was a young Army Air Forces navigator who wanted to start a family business with his brothers in Kansas City. Home from the war in 1946, Henry saw a pamphlet suggesting a bright future for companies serving small businesses, and it sparked his imagination. That year, Henry and his older brother, Leon, borrowed $5,000 and opened a small bookkeeping business on Main Street in downtown Kansas City. However, four months later, they had few clients and Leon decided to seek a law degree.
Henry wanted to keep trying with the fledgling business and placed a newspaper advertisement for help-wanted. He got an unexpected response—from his mother—who proposed that Henry hire his younger brother, Richard, for the job. Henry and Richard Bloch jointly ran their United Business Company, which focused on accounting, bookkeeping and payroll, but also did some income tax work for clients. The brothers took out an ad for its $5 tax services in The Kansas City Star newspaper in 1955. The ad was a success and H&R Block was born. The Bloch brothers chose to spell the name "Block" with a K to ensure the name was not mispronounced "blotch".
Expansion (1956–1980s)
In 1956, the Blochs decided to expand and picked New York City. Neither brother wanted to move to New York, so they agreed to sell that regional operation, creating the first H&R Block franchise tax office. In the following years, H&R Block grew and went public in 1962.
In 1980 H&R Block purchased the Compuserve online service. By 1986, Block was handling more than 10 million tax returns annually and had opened offices in Canada and Australia. That year, the company worked with the Internal Revenue Service to introduce electronic filing.
Recent history
H&R Block acquired MECA Software, a 1980s PFM company that created the TaxCut software, in 1993. In 1995, H&R Block sold MECA, but retained TaxCut.
The company began to expand in the 1990s into the financial services arena, offering mortgage loans, banking and business services. H&R Block purchased Olde Discount Stockbrokers in 1999 and operated as a full-service securities broker-dealer under the name H&R Block Financial Advisors. In 2008, the company sold its H&R Block Financial Advisors unit to Ameriprise Financial for $315 million. At the time, the unit managed $30 billion in assets and employed 900 financial advisors in the U.S.
RSM McGladrey Business Solutions was created in 1999 when H&R Block acquired the assets of McGladrey & Pullen, aside from its auditors and attest services which remained under ownership of McGladrey's partners. Following the acquisition H&R Block became the sixth-largest accounting firm in the U.S. McGladrey had 100 offices in 25 states and offered accounting, consulting, tax services, and international business services to mid-sized companies. Through an alliance with McGladrey & Pullen and other accountancies, the Block subsidiary operated in 70 countries under the RSM International name. In 2011, H&R Block sold the unit back to McGladrey & Pullen.
H&R Block hired Jeff Jones, a former Target Corporation and Uber executive, as president and CEO on October 9, 2017. He replaced Tom Gerke, who was interim CEO following the retirement of former CEO Bill Cobb. Jones has said he sees H&R Block as a financial services company and a retail company, and aims to grow the company.
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H&R Block started its first Global Technology Center in India in October 2017. This was created with the vision to grow H&R Block's Product Engineering and IT Solutions Development platforms. It is located in Technopark, Trivandrum, Kerala.
H&R Block announced in June 2019 that it would acquire Wave Financial, a Canadian financial technology company offering bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll services for small businesses. H&R Block acquired Wave for US$405 million (C$537 million). Wave operates as an independent subsidiary by Wave CEO Zahir Khoja from Toronto, Ontario.
Television
In 2010, H&R Block featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
H&R Block's own taxes 2005
In August 2005, H&R Block announced that it had overstated its earnings for 2003 and 2004 by $91.1 million. The company stated that it had "insufficient resources" to identify and report complex transactions in its corporate tax accounting. On February 23, 2006, the company said in its quarterly results that it had miscalculated its own state income taxes for 2005 and 2004, and that it owed an additional $32 million in back taxes.
Social Security numbers 2005
In December 2005, H&R Block sent its customers free copies of its TaxCut software, and the mailing labels on the packages mistakenly included the recipients' Social Security numbers. The company said it sent the promotional mailing to former customers and people whose names were taken from purchased lists. It said it is legally required to hold on to customers' tax information, including Social Security numbers, for three years. H&R Block said no customer data has been lost or stolen as a result of the mistake, and that less than 3 percent of the mailings were involved.
Refund anticipation loans 2006
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sued H&R Block in February 2006, alleging the company's refund anticipation loan (RAL) business violated state and federal laws in its marketing and providing of high-cost RALs mainly to low-income clients. The lawsuit also alleged H&R Block received a "substantial portion of the loan fees", in some cases purchasing up to 49.9 percent of the loans, and further alleged that H&R Block at times held onto a customer's tax refund for purposes of paying off RAL-related debt from previous years, including that claimed by other banks or tax preparers. The complaint stated, "Therefore, Block clients who are claimed to owe debt from a prior year are led to expect a loan, but instead find themselves in a collection proceeding."
The company responded that it "believes the refund lending program is both fair and legal, and will vigorously defend against the complaint". On January 2, 2009, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. reached a $4.85 million settlement with H&R Block, which prohibits the company from deceptively marketing high-cost refund anticipation loans as early "tax refunds". The company set aside $2.45 million in restitution for customers if they purchased a "refund anticipation loan" or a "refund anticipation check" through H&R Block between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2008. In addition, H&R Block agreed to pay $500,000 in penalties and $1.9 million in fees and costs. In 2011, H&R Block ceased offering RALs altogether, a move praised by consumer rights activists.
Express IRA 2006
On March 16, 2006, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued H&R Block, accusing the company of deceptive marketing of its Express IRA retirement accounts. The lawsuit alleged the company assessed fees, including set-up fees, annual fees, and account closing fees that, for 85% of account holders, resulted in the account losing money. However, in July 2007, a New York state judge dismissed much of the lawsuit. Justice Karla Moskowitz of the State Supreme Court excused Block and five of its units from the lawsuit. She let stand the portion of the complaint concerning another unit, H&R Block Financial Advisers, but dismissed allegations of common law fraud. At the time of the ruling, H&R Block said it believed the remaining assertions lacked merit and that it would appeal. On January 6, 2009, a New York state appeals court overruled trial justice Karla Moskowitz's July 2007 ruling and reinstated the lawsuit against H&R Block Inc that accused the company of fraudulently marketing Express IRA retirement accounts to hundreds of thousands of lower-income clients nationwide. The matter was settled in 2009, and H&R Block agreed to pay $11.4 million to $19.4 million of fees to customers and $750,000 in fees and other costs.
From Wikipedia’s article on H&R Block, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8