H&R Block reviews

This is actually a commission-based job. At the end of the season, based on one's level (test based, or EA, attorney, or CPA), your compensation is calculated based on your returns & add-on products, and your hourly rate (very low) is subtracted. If you've made more than you're hourly rate, you get paid that amount. There's a shortage of experienced preparers in the Boston area. As a result, there are very inexperienced associates hired. This leads to mistakes in returns, and added pressure on experienced preparers to support newbies (without compensation). Also - tax pros are expected to clean the offices and bathrooms!

The pay is basically minimum wage. There is theoretically a commission system, but it mostly benefits the most experienced tax pros in the office. Any time spent not completing returns (answering phones, providing staffing coverage, learning, working on returns that don't get approved) dilutes your returns-per-hour. Pros with an established client base and the personal capital to refuse working extra hours are able to maximize their hourly pay. The pricing system made me uncomfortable. Often clients with low income will end up paying some of the highest fees, due to separate charges for claiming dependents, claiming the Child Tax Credit, claiming the Earned Income Credit, and having more than three W-2s. But people who choose a refund advance tend to be more interested in how much they are getting, not how much they are paying. At HRB there were people I deeply respected as professionals, and others I wouldn't trust anywhere near my own return. While most employees are diligent about learning tax law and applying it accurately, others are lackadaisical about it, doing what they THINK the law is or should be. Unfortunately HRB's test-based system of promotion doesn't reward knowledge (or honesty). Leveling up is done through taking untimed, unproctored, open-book exams, which invites cheating. I saw a woman with twenty years experience revert to a level two, because she didn't retake her test that year. Meanwhile, another coworker became a level four after collaborating with others on his test, despite not knowing some basic concepts. There is little oversight in the office regarding tax preparation, other than pressure to sell products. This isn't a good permanent position for someone who wants to make accounting a career.