H&R Block, well known for its in-office services, has been at the forefront of the online personal tax preparation field for decades. It provides comprehensive coverage of tax situations and specialized guidance for self-employed people (including gig workers and independent contractors) in a clean, professional interface on desktop and mobile. Free assistance from tax experts (available only in paid versions) is a valuable bonus as well. H&R Block has been a close competitor to TurboTax for a long time, but the latter remains our Editors’ Choice winner because it’s simply better at guiding taxpayers through Form 1040. FreeTaxUSA, another Editors’ Choice winner, stands out for its affordability and straightforward user experience.
H&R Block offers four service tiers. Its robust free plan, Free Online, supports Form 1040 and various situations, including retirement income, student expenses, unemployment, and W-2 income. You can also use it if you claim the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Credit (EITC). H&R Block says nearly 52% of taxpayers qualify for this version. If your tax situation doesn't go beyond those aspects, you can file both your federal and state returns at no cost. H&R Block lists the federal and state forms this plan supports.
Deluxe ($35 for federal filing, $65 later in the tax season) includes AI-driven online assistance, free professional tax support via chat, itemized deductions, and additional features. Premium ($70 federal, $105 later) adds rental and investment income. Self-Employed ($85 for federal, $130 later in the tax season) adds Schedule C (which you need if you do gig work or are otherwise self-employed) and Schedule F (for farm income and expenses). Filing a state return costs $37 for all paid versions.
The Tax Pro Review add-on gets you additional virtual help from CPAs, EAs, and H&R Block agents. With this service, you complete your return, and an H&R Block tax professional reviews, signs, and e-files it for you.
Similar Products
H&R Block and TurboTax typically have similar prices. This year, TurboTax’s early price for the self-employed edition is $99, which will increase to $139 later in the tax season. TaxSlayer’s Classic version, which supports the Schedule C, is $22.99. Both FreeTaxUSA and Cash App Taxes offer free federal filing. The latter is free for state filing, too. Generally, the more expensive the product, the better the help system and user experience.
Of course, H&R Block offers comprehensive in-person and virtual tax preparation. You can either upload your tax documents or drop them off. Prices for federal filing start at $89.
H&R Block's DIY service follows the same path as human tax professionals. The software's setup wizard first asks about income and then proceeds to credits, deductions, and taxes. It asks questions in a conversational way, like, “Did you pay any vehicle and personal property taxes?” You respond by clicking buttons, choosing options from lists, and entering answers. You can save time on entering data and minimize errors by importing data from W-2s and 1099s instead of typing everything manually.
The wizard alternates between step-by-step walk-throughs and lists of tax situations that pertain to you. It continues to ask questions about your income and tax-deductible expenses until you cover everything relevant. H&R Block works in the background, performing all the necessary calculations and entering your answers on official IRS and state forms. Help is plentiful and understandable.
After you choose the version of the software you need (H&R Block can help you with this, and it has expanded guidance here), you either enter personal information for members of your household (birth dates, Social Security numbers, and street addresses) or import data from last year’s return (even if you used a competing service). You answer some tax-related questions about you and your dependents, and then move on to deal with actual tax topics.
H&R Block allows you to select the income topics that pertain to you from lists across areas like Employment (W-2 income), Investments, and Small Business and Self-Employment. Then, wizards walk you through the Q&As for each.
I found it challenging to locate a comprehensive list of income topics when I first entered that section. Rather than simply listing all the topics available from the start, you sometimes have to click the Add Another Income Type or Add Another Less Common Income Type links. Basically, it takes a while to reach the full list of income topics. Taxpayers might just think that H&R Block just doesn't cover some types and give up.
Once you complete all the relevant income topics, you move on to the deduction and credit section, which works the same way as income, only better, since the complete list of tax topics appears right away. Competitors walk you through their tax topics similarly, though H&R Block sometimes requires extra clicks because so many pages pose just one question.
The H&R Block site includes a navigation menu that opens in a pane on the right side of the screen. It isn’t as comprehensive as the one in FreeTaxUSA, but it effectively displays the site’s main sections and tax topics.
H&R Block walks you through all the many topics in Schedule C carefully and comprehensively. You must complete this section, even if you have only a side gig with minimal income and expenses. Like its competitors, it has to build a business profile for you based on your answers to questions about accounting methods and inventory. It guesses at your responses based on how other people doing similar work would answer, but you can edit these. It asks how your income was reported, like on a 1099-NEC or 1099-K, as well as other income that doesn't appear on forms (usually cash and checks).
H&R Block then moves on to expenses, allowing you to select the relevant ones. These are standard business expenses you need to report on Schedule C, such as advertising, office expenses, and home office expenses. Whereas some competitors offer little guidance here, H&R Block displays simple, clear descriptions of each expense. This is very helpful, since you might be unsure what you can deduct. Even a new sole proprietor who has never filed a Schedule C could probably report their income and expenses using H&R Block.
Still, navigation can be confusing here and requires unnecessary clicks. You click next to the business expenses that apply to you and then click Next. The app then takes you back to the list, where you have to click Edit next to every expense you want to report. You repeat this until you’re done. I think it would be easier if it allowed you to report business expenses in one continuous stream. This would reduce the chances of missing expenses you could have entered.
The H&R Block site and mobile apps include extensive built-in guidance. Most help content is available in a vertical pane on the desktop. This makes it easily accessible without obscuring any part of the Q&A sections.
For the most part, H&R Block's language is simple and understandable, with minimal suggestions to visit IRS instructions, which is optimal. After all, one of the main reasons for using tax software is to avoid dealing with IRS instructions (though in rare cases, it might still be necessary).
H&R Block introduces its content on many pages with an expanded explanation of the current tax topic. Hyperlinks in the text open related explanations in the help pane, which displays the three help types (the old Search, Ask AI, and Agent).
AI Tax Assist (Ask AI) leans on Microsoft Azure, OpenAI, and the Tax Institute of H&R Block. It converses with you, much like any other chatbot. It worked fine in testing and provided answers quickly.
Search and Ask AI work differently. The Search tool might return numerous hits, variations on the questions you asked, as well as occasional unrelated ones. It sometimes provides links to related sections. Ask AI is always on topic, and it often suggests a related question after its initial response. It doesn’t offer direct links to the current tax topic but rather lists step-by-step instructions—at least, that's what I saw. Both can be helpful for different types of questions. I asked what the difference was between short-term and long-term capital gains. Ask AI got right to the point and supplied a definition, whereas Search didn’t really address it head-on. Neither could tell me how to report a gift of cryptocurrency.
I’m disappointed that the help pane no longer provides context-sensitive help automatically. The pane’s content used to change whenever you advanced to a page with contextual guidance. This stopped when the company introduced the three-tier help pane.
Taxpayers can connect with both tax professionals and product support staff via chat. Expert help is free with all of H&R Block’s paid products. Most competitors charge for consultations with tax experts, making this a significant advantage.
Once you finish entering all your tax information, H&R Block runs a wrap-up, first asking questions, for example, about whether you allow someone else to discuss your return with the IRS. Then, it runs its Federal Accuracy Review, which looks for errors and omissions in your return. It lets you correct any mistakes.
When it found something I hadn’t completed (like the form for the new Child Tax Advantage Account), it displayed a Review Item button, which took me back to the beginning of that section, but not to the exact page. It also didn’t catch that I started but didn't finish reporting a cryptocurrency transaction. (That entry said Needs Review on the main Income page.) Also, once I finished that section, the app didn't take me directly back to the Federal Accuracy Review to deal with other issues. I had to use the navigation menu to get there.
All of H&R Block's websites offer multiple layers of protection, including industry-standard web browser encryption and multi-factor authentication (MFA). The company says it protects and monitors your data 24/7. It also employs external security experts to perform audits and assess risks. Finally, H&R Block houses its data centers, networks, and servers in secure facilities. You can read more about its security practices here.
H&R Block’s mobile apps (available for Android and iOS) mirror the interface and navigation tools in the desktop version. Both standard Search and AI Tax Assist tools are available, though there’s no extra room for the right vertical pane, of course, so help links open new pages, which works very well.
You shouldn't have a problem preparing a complex return in the mobile apps, since they’re just as comprehensive as the browser-based version. I enjoyed using the apps because their pages are clean and attractive, and they advance and reverse quickly.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block 2026 (Tax Year 2025)
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
H&R Block's tax prep site offers a lot to like. It has a professional, welcoming design and digs deep for tax-related income and deductions. We also like that live expert support doesn't cost extra with a paid plan, as well as the easy access to other help resources. However, navigation could be more intuitive, and we miss the always-on context-sensitive help. If you want the smoothest possible tax preparation experience and don't mind paying for it, we recommend TurboTax, our Editors' Choice winner for paid tax prep. FreeTaxUSA, our Editors’ Choice for free tax prep, charges nothing to file federal returns, yet it remains comprehensive enough for even self-employed taxpayers.
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About Our Expert
I write about money. I’ve been reviewing tax software and services as a freelancer for PCMag since 1993. Along the way, I took on reviews of other types of business and personal finance technology. Prior to that, I had spent a few years writing about productivity and entertainment applications for 8-bit personal computers (my first one was a Commodore VIC-20) as a member of the editorial staff at Compute!Â
After working at Lawson Associates, now Lawson Software, I switched my focus to accounting but learned that personal computer applications were more progressive and interesting to cover than mainframe solutions. So I served as editor of a monthly newsletter that provided support for accountants who were just starting to use PCs. I still ghostwrite monthly how-to columns for accounting professionals. From there, I went on to write articles and reviews for numerous business and financial publications, including Barron’s and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.
