How much money can I expect to make as a 'bonus' my 1st year at H&R Block? - Pittsburgh area?

Question

I plan on working part time evenings and weekends, maybe 20 hours per week. I am familiar with how this is calculated, but as far as a ballpark figure, what could I possibly get? what is realistic? i dont want to get my hopes up. i'll be working in a lower-income neighborhood...will that mean a lot of instant refunds and a bigger comission for me?

i know there are a lot of variables to this. i am very curious about the earning potential, but dont want to seem greedy to my instructor or manager. any info at all would be very helpful to me

i consider myself somewhat intelligent and have an accounting background.

Thank you for insulting my ethics/morals. I would never push a costly product on someone just for my own benefit. If a customer comes in and wants the instant check, all I can do is show them the facts and fees. It's their decision and not my job to persuade them one way or another. I was only asking what comission these services earn. You did not even answer my question or tell me anything beside what I said I already knew. Probably why you're a top contributor

ok this is not really a MORAL issue. if you are a low-income person, and NEED or WANT a refund immediately, and you are willing to pay the fees. Obviously its not smart, but these are gown adults that will be sitting in front of me, and making their own decisions.
There is a chart of fees sitting in front of you and they are very up front about the fees. I never have been--and never will be--a dishonest sales person. Obviously to someone in a secure financial situation, it is smarter to wait 2 weeks or a little longer for the money. To people in low-income situations, the immediate refunds sell themselves because they are immediate money. My one friend does it every year because she gets a large refund, and I even called her and told her to plan ahead so she is able to wait a little longer and I will do her taxes so she can avoid upwards of $300 in fees. She told me thanks anyway, but she'll pay to have her money the next day

Answer 1

I worked for Block in Indiana from 1995-2002. My situation was not common as i sold my small tax prep business to work for Block as it was less stress and it turned out that i earned around the same amount of money.

The first year earned about 12k, most of it was the "bonus" because my draw was minimun wage. The least i ever made at block was 11K (didn't work very much), the most I ever made was 28K with stock options (i had worked hard the previous 2 years). In all i think i averaged in the high teens most years working mostly days about 30 hours a week.

My situation was not typical of the other preparers that worked in my office. I made more than twice as much as the 1st year preparers because after Feb 15th each year I would do about 90% appointments so i was working when newbies were waiting for a walk in.

I was one of the higher paid preparers at the office i worked at. But i had advantages, I already had a clientell when I started there. There were people who mad more than me and most made less.

When i left Block it wasn't because of the company. It was because of the people who worked in my office. In 2003 my National Guard unit was activated for Iraq. I wasn't sent because of medical problems but wasn't released until after tax season. The other preparers in the office were telling my clients that i had quit. When the manager wouldn't back me up i quit.

When you work for Block you sign a non compete agreement that says you won't prepare returns for pay for 2 years after you leave. I moved to another town 25 miles away and my name wasn't published in the phone book any more and i still had people track me down.

As far as RAL's go, If you don't offer them you can't compete. But most of my clients didn't take them and the company never said anything to me about it, but i made them money. How i approached RALs is i would tell them how much it cost and then have them compare that to how much money they made in a day. Most of the time it would be worth a couple days wages and my clients would decide that it was worth it to wait.

The best advise i can give you is to tell you to offer superior customer service. Bring up the cost of the RAL, and ask your client lots of questions. If you do this you will be as busy as you want to be doing tax returns, you will look after your clients intrest and therefore you will be looking after your employers intrests too. It may take you a couple of years to build up a clientell, but once that happens your income will take off.

I know i didn't answer your specific question but there is no way to tell how much you will make the 1st year. I hope my experence helps to answer some of your questions.

Answer 2

If I remember correctly, H&R calculates a total commission for you based on number of returns done and the profitability for them. Then they subtract the wages you've already been paid. So if your commission is $4000 and they've already paid you $3500, you would only get $500 more.

In terms of being realistic, only count on being able to spend the hourly wages. Yes, working in a neighborhood with people prone to signing up for addition fees increases the odds that your commission will be higher. But morally, you should only offer the instant refund loans, not push them.

If the taxpayer can wait, the wait is usually only 2 additional weeks. If they sign up for a refund anticipation loan, they are agreeing to an outrageously high interest rate and if something delays their refund, they will get calls from the bank trying to collect the money back. From my point of view, this is a lose/lose situation.

I wasn't insulting your morals--just a friendly reminder that you can have them even when working in an environment that tells you to push product on every person who comes in. Despite the attempts of the chains to follow the law in explaining what a RAL is, many of the people who sign up for them have no idea what they've agreed to.

Some of these individuals will fudge when you are asking questions about their dependents...ending up with them claiming the dependent and EIC when they aren't entitled to it, and when the are asked to return the money (either to the IRS or to the bank that did the RAL), they will blame the tax preparer. It won't be your fault that they lied to you, but they'll still blame you.

Answer 3

v b is correct in his evaluation of how the system works. I should also point out that if you don't vigorously push the RALs your job will be in jeopardy.

Even if you are highly competent and have no chargebacks due to errors made by you, they won't be keeping you on the rolls as an employee if you don't push hard on the RALs.

So now you have a quandry -- your moral compass or your need for the additional funds -- if you decide to work for one of the tax prep mills. It's your call.