H&R Block has opened a new chain of stores, Block Advisors, to serve the needs of business customers and those with more complex returns. Designed to operate year-round, the stores are likely to be expanded and at the moment are all company owned.
"This is a new store with a new product set serving the unique needs of these clients," says Meg Sutton, who has served as director of Block Advisors since April. Previously, she was director of H&R Premium for 11 months and says that the new unit grew out of that effort.
Currently, Block Advisors is offering prospective clients 50 percent of the cost of returns prepared last year, with a minimum charge of $100. Sutton says the offer applies to any type of return. And while consumers are welcome, "this business is being built on relationships," Sutton says.
Both CPAs and Enrolled Agents are employed as preparers. Block Advisors is offering tax planning and business services such as bookkeeping, payroll, accounts receivable monitoring and bill payment. Block Small Business Services, formed last year, operates within Block Advisors.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
