Does anyone know how much a Jackson Hewitt tax preparer can make during tax season?

Question

I am getting ready to enroll in there 8 week course in anticipation of employment with them.

Answer 1

What they pay is going to depend on your location and whether it is a Corporate or Franchise office.
I had to respond in order to dispute the answer about H&R Block. Yes, you can get comission based on how many returns you do, and how complex they are. However, there is NO incentive to do complex returns quickly. In fact, it is suggested that we take at least 45 minutes with ALL returns, to ensure we ahve given the best possible financial information and gotten all possible deductions. A more complex return is going to take longer. If you are working somewhere and you are encouraged to rush, talk to your DM or call the employee hotline, as this is NOT good service. The pay structure is changing nationwide so that this isn't even a perceived issue.
By the way, Block's class is 11 weeks, starting pay is higher for us, and our class generally qualifies you to be a manager at JH, But I don't want this to turn into a Block vs JH forum, so I'll congratulate you, and say that if you have any questions and can't get ahold of your instructor, feel free to come back here and e-mail me. I'll be happy to help you out - it's what I do.

Answer 2

That depends on where you are located and if the office is Corporate owned or a Franchisee owned operation. Last season in El Paso, TX, which has 40+ locations that are all Corporate owned, JH paid beginning office managers 7.85 an hour and, I think that preparers made 7.35. The commission that they pay is minuscule. Back in 1990, when I worked for a Franchisee H & R Block, I made more than that and commission was actually very good. I do not know what they do now, though. Both were bad experiances, money wise, but the training was worth it.

Answer 3

Jackson Hewitt Salary

Answer 4

Each Franchisee sets their own wage and commission scale. The money is never really good but the training and experience is invaluable. If you work there and start to build up clients on the side you can make pretty good money after a couple of years. Be real careful about mixing your private practice with the Franchisees practice. Most places have some type of non-compete clause so get your private clients away from the Franchise

Answer 5

The people who take the courses mostly end up working for H & R Block and Jackson-Hewitt. Their compensation is based on the tax returns they do, and they typically do a lot of 1040-EZ forms, resulting in the same sort of pay that you get for flipping burgers. If you learn what you're doing, you'll find that complicated returns are much more fun, because you get to probe for tax deductions. I used to look at past tax returns to get an idea what was going on, and by asking questions, I often could file amended returns that got them a lot of money back. I remember one customer who came on January 25, 1986 - I remember, because that was the day the Challenger blew up. This couple has a struggling small business, and were worried that they couldn't afford to get their taxes done. I told them that business returns typically ran $75 or so. Well, when they came in a week later, I told them I had bad news and good news. They wanted the bad news first. Well, I said, they needed a much more complex return than I initially thought, and what's more, their old returns had to be redone as well, and we were talking $1,050 for the three returns. The lady's face went *really* pale. She started crying, and said there was NO way they could afford that. Then I told her that instead of paying taxes this year, they had a refund coming - for all three years, it was about $7,000. Which is what happens when an inexperienced preparer handles a complex return. Taxpayers with complex situations need good preparers. If you're good, you really need to be working for yourself. I found that it cost $100 in classified ad advertising for every $100 in returns I got to do, which doesn't sound profitable, but it is, because the *next* year and the next, and the year after, virtually all those customers wanted me again. By 1989, I was averaging $40 per hour, but I needed to move out of the area to finish my degree. All these people were like my family. I got invited to weddings and graduations. They loved me. The last year I did taxes, I refused to tell my customers how much to pay me. I said I'd leave it up to them, to pay me what I was worth. Most of them paid me *twice* what I'd charged them the previous year. And the following year, some of them begged me to drive the 300 miles to where they were, to do their taxes once again. So yeah, you can make pretty good money as a tax preparer. If you are good, and mostly do taxes for small businesses and people who have investments, I suspect that in 2007 dollars, you should be able to do $150K in billings working full time, six months per year. Six months? Aren't taxes due on April 15? Sure, but you can get an automatic extension to file in August, just for asking for it. Sometimes, you'll need the time to do some of the complex returns. In other cases, you'll ask for the extension even though you don't need it, in order to make your customer think that your services are very much in demand.

Answer 6

The other answer is not much more than minimum wages. Work for yourself and make about $100.00 per hour. But you need experience first. Consider them a low paid way to learn.

Answer 7

I was a tax preparer at H&R Block. The more returns you get done the more you get paid. You get a percentage of the charges...so it's good to do complicated returns quickly.