JUST SAY "NO" TO HENRY AND RICHARD

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Whydo I advise individuals not to use the services of a “fast food” taxpreparation chain?  Here are two reasons-
(1)    As I have continually pointed out,Henry and Richard, and the others of their “ilk”, ain’t cheap!  Why?  While,like anything else, the market affects the price of tax preparation, the majorfactor affecting the fees charged is overhead. Let’s look at the overhead ofthese “fast food” chains.
Becausethe storefronts where these chains are located are usually in high trafficcommercial areas, and often shopping malls, the rent is generally very high.And an important factor – H+R Block and Liberty and Jackson Hewitt storefrontsare only open during the tax filing season, yet they must pay rent on theproperty for the entire year.
Thesechains have excessive advertising budgets during the season, spending millionsof dollars on constant tv and radio spots as well as print advertising tellingyou not that they competently prepare accurate tax returns but simply to comeinto their office and walk out with a check. Hey, doesn’t H+R advertise duringthe Super Bowl.
H+RBlock et al are corporations, and have highly compensated upper level corporateofficers and employees with generous employee benefits. A while back theAssociated Press reported that “H&RBlock Inc. CEO Russell Smyth received compensation valued at $5.3 million infiscal 2009, the year he took over leadership of the nation's largest taxpreparer”.
Withcommercial preparation chains I expect that the actual cost of preparing thereturn - salaries paid to the seasonal preparers and the training of thesepreparers - is one of the smallest items in the budget.
AsI have always said – when you use Henry and Richard you pay fancy restaurantprices for fast food service.  To behonest I am not being fair to fast food franchises – I have actually receivedgood service at McDonalds and Burger Kings.  
(2)  A few years ago the GovernmentAccountability Office (GAO) conducted a study which resulted in a report toCongress titled “Paid Return Preparers: In a Limited Study, Chain PreparersMade Serious Errors”. This study was one of the reasons the IRS began itsinvestigation into the regulation of tax return preparers. 
TheGAO sent undercover agents with two different tax scenarios to a total of 19offices of 5 “fast-food” commercial tax chains, including H+R Block, in ametropolitan area. In only 2 instances was the correct refund calculated, butall 19 returns contained errors.
Iwas surprised when I was told by the GAO at an IRS Nationwide Forum that not one of the 19 preparers in the studyhad asked to see the undercover taxpayer’s prior year’s return!
Otherundercover operations, by the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration(TIGTA), local tax agencies, and consumer protection organizations, have foundsimilar results.  These findings have ledto the current IRS tax return preparer regulation regime.
Mymentor always said he wished that H+R Block would open an office next door tous.  He felt we would make a fortune correctingthe errors made on H+R-prepared returns.
Itis better to be safe than sorry.  I recommend that you do not use a “fast food” tax preparation chain to prepare your federal and stateincome tax returns. Of course I must end with the following disclaimer - Iit may actually be possible that the best tax preparer, at the best price, for your particular situation may be an H+R Block, or other fast-food chain, employee. But this is only because of the education, experience, ability, temperament, and other factors that are specific to that individual preparer.
TTFN