Talk:H&R Block/Archives/2018

Failure to pay employees
On January 27, 2018 a new section was added to the main article claiming that H&R Block has failed to pay its employees. It cites a Facebook post as its authority, and that post appears to be the complaint of a single worker complaining that she had not been paid for two months' work.

Does an isolated Facebook post qualify as the type of authority expected for encyclopedic articles?

I have not modified the article, but raise this for consideration. Jnmwiki (talk) 05:05, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

Block Advisors
In 2016, H&R Block launched Block Advisors, a year-round tax preparation and planning service for individuals and small businesses with more complex tax situations. The more than 280 Block Advisors offices nationwide also offer small business services like bookkeeping, payroll, bill payment and accounts receivable monitoring.

168.137.100.22 (talk) 20:07, 11 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Done! - Iago Qnsi (talk) 06:19, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

Help to remove inappropriately sourced content
Hi there, per Jnmwiki's post above, earlier this year a new section of this article Unpaid Employees was created based on a Facebook post. I've been researching and have not been able to find any journalistic coverage of this issue, and the only other sourcing available for the information in the section appears to also be social media (mainly LinkedIn) posts by the employee involved. On behalf of H&R Block (via their PR agency, Ketchum, as part of my work at Beutler Ink), I'd like to request that editors take a look at this information and remove it, since there is no Wikipedia appropriate sourcing.

Looking at the page's edit history, there's not many active editors who have edited the article in recent months but it looks like Edknol and TimK MSI are still active: would either of you be willing to look into this and remove this section? Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 15:00, 23 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Based on my own experience, H&R Block does sometimes fail to pay people on time even when it violates state law. It does not surprise me that no media reports have appeared about this. The state can help you get your back pay but they cannot prevent you from being fired for complaining.  So in conclusion, I do not plan on making any edits to that section. Edknol (talk) 20:20, 23 March 2018 (UTC)


 * As Edknol doesn't want to make this edit for personal reasons, and no-one else has replied, I'm wondering if either GorillaWarfare and Mr. Satterly would be willing to take a look -- you are among the few other active editors who've made changes on this page in the not-so-distant past. Would either of you be willing to remove the Unpaid Employees section, sourced to a Facebook post? Thanks in advance for looking at this. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 20:03, 2 April 2018 (UTC)


 * ✅ GorillaWarfare (talk) 21:13, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much for looking into this, GorillaWarfare, much appreciated. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 00:26, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

Request to update infobox
Hi there! On behalf of H&R Block (via their PR agency, Ketchum, as part of my work at Beutler Ink), I'd like to request some updates to this article's infobox. You can find my proposed draft below, along with the markup, and references. The updates that I am proposing below are:
 * Adding wikilinks for company founders Henry and Richard Bloch, and CEO Jeff Jones
 * Updating financials, including: revenue, net income, assets, equity based on full financial year 2017 reporting
 * Updating employee count based on 2017 full year reporting
 * Within the above, I'm also suggesting adding the figure for seasonal employees, since a substantial amount of H&R Block employees do not work with the company year-round

All other details are per the current infobox.

Since I do have a financial conflict of interest, I won't edit the article myself and am looking for an uninvolved editors to review and make changes as appropriate. Would GorillaWarfare like to review this request as well? Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:07, 1 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Do you mind using the requested edit template? After doing my own taxes I don't have a ton of energy to dig through investor documentation... GorillaWarfare (talk) 23:29, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Aha, I totally understand if you don't have time right now and thanks so much for replying here to let me know. I'll look for assistance elsewhere. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 16:44, 4 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks to Whoisjohngalt for reviewing this request and making the updates! With apologies, as I look at it, I do spot a small formatting error that looks to be my fault from a typo in the markup. There's a stray nowiki tag after "Robert Gerard (Chairman)" that needs to be removed. Would you mind making that fix? Thanks again, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 13:24, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
 * 16912_Rhiannon, I should have caught that. All done. Chat soon. Whoisjohngalt (talk) 14:42, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks again, much appreciated! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 16:28, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Request to update History
Hi there! On behalf of H&R Block (via their PR agency, Ketchum, as part of my work at Beutler Ink), I'm back to request an updated and expanded History section. The live History section contains a lot of unsourced material, and its fair share of promotional language (For example, this unsourced sentence: "A TV ad campaign begun in 1972 featured Henry Bloch and became the springboard for H&R Block becoming one of the most widely recognized brand names in the U.S.")

Additionally, I am asking editors to move the content from the existing Controversies section into History. Controversies and Criticisms sections have become deprecated per WP:CRITS, and by their very nature are biased. My proposal is to merge the details into the History within the chronology as appropriate, retaining all content sourced to secondary sources.

You can find my draft below, along with the markup, and references. This is intended to replace the existing History and Controversies sections. The key updates that I am proposing are:


 * Moving all the subsections currently in Controversies into History
 * Please note that I'm suggesting deletion of some material from the existing H&R Block's own taxes portion. One sentence in the section is based on routine trading news and the other content is sourced only to the company's government filings, and was not written about in the third-party source provided. Here's the current text for reviewing editors to look over, and see if they feel it's necessary to include:
 * That mistake, plus Block's lower-than-expected earnings for the quarter, caused its stock price to drop by 8.5 percent in one day. On April 30, 2008, the company's liability recorded for "uncertain tax positions" totaled $137.6 million (excluding related interest and penalties). According to H&R Block, "This liability represents an estimate of tax positions we have taken in our tax returns that may ultimately not be sustained upon examination by the tax authorities." Estimated gross interest and penalties relating to these potential assessments totaled an additional $47.5 million.


 * Adding detail on the 2009 settlement with the New York Attorney General's office (currently in the Express IRA subsection)
 * Dividing History into two subsections: Early history and Recent history
 * Adding some information on the company's early focus and trimming down some of the color around the separation of the tax preparation business etc.
 * Rewriting the material surrounding H&R Block moving to New York and then franchising its office there. The current reference is no longer available, so I swapped in a new source and trimmed detail to make it more encyclopedic
 * Removing unsourced material and WP:POV text. (For example: "grew quickly" should just say "grew". And as mentioned before, the entire sentence about H&R Block's first TV commercial)
 * Adding new sources where needed to support existing material, including:H&R Block's Compuserve acquisition; details from 1986; beginning electronic filing; purchase of Olde Discount Stockbrokers
 * Adding material on H&R Block's acquisition of MECA and TaxCut
 * Deleting unsourced material (such as "By 2007, the unit was managing $33 billion in assets, offering investment planning, advice and related financial products and services, and employed 900 financial advisors in the U.S.")
 * Adding clarification and sourcing for H&R Block's purchase of McGladrey & Pullen's business
 * Adding recent leadership changes, such as the hiring of CEO Jeff Jones

Since I do have a financial conflict of interest, I won't edit the article myself and am looking for an uninvolved editors to review and make changes as appropriate. Whoisjohngalt: Pinging you again in case you would you like to review this request as well? Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 14:48, 25 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you so much to Whoisjohngalt for another close review and for making these edits. Two things to follow up on: it looks like when you copied and pasted, it accidentally brought over some unwanted text. Can you delete the following text, which now appears at the end of the introduction?
 * Cobb.[33][35] Jones has said he sees H&R Block as a financial services company and a retail company, and aims to grow the company.[35][34] Markup
 * Also, the article still contains the Controversies section. That content has been wrapped into History, so there is now duplication between the two. Do you feel comfortable deleting the existing Controversies section? (In the full request above, I've explained my thoughts on moving the details into History and deleting, in case you wanted to look through that again.)
 * Thanks again! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 13:16, 30 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Good morning 16912 Rhiannon. I needed to leave the controversies in for a bit (for my own mind) and then I forgot them. Thanks for doing a great neutral job when writing.Whoisjohngalt (talk) 13:59, 30 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Ah, totally understood and thanks for coming back so quickly to take a look at that, as well I see that you'd removed the warning tag, which is great. I have just a couple more suggestions for this page to come soon, but it's already looking so muhc better. Thanks! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 17:23, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Request for Corporate affairs
Hi again! On behalf of H&R Block (via PR agency Ketchum, as part of my work at Beutler Ink), I'm back to request a new section be added to this article to discuss the company's Corporate affairs. The body of this article is currently missing key details on H&R Block's governance, high-profile marketing campaigns, and its charitable efforts.

You can find my draft below, along with the markup, and references. My suggestion is to place this all-new section between History and Business areas. These are the main additions I am proposing:
 * Location of H&R Block's headquarters and its place in an effort to revitalize downtown Kansas City
 * Corporate governance and leadership
 * The number of regular full-time and seasonal employees
 * Annual revenue
 * Mention of the Tax Institute at H&R Block
 * A Marketing subsection that focuses on H&R Block's high-profile media campaigns that have been covered in independent sources
 * A Corporate social responsibility subsection briefly mentioning H&R Block's free tax services in connection with the United Way, Free File Alliance, and Military One Source, in addition to its financial literacy campaigns for students, all of which is referenced to Wikipedia-appropriate sourcing

Since I do have a financial conflict of interest, I won't edit the article myself and am looking for an uninvolved editors to review and make changes as appropriate. Pinging you again. Do you have time for another review? Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 17:35, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much again, Whoisjohngalt. Sorry for taking a little time to come back, as I've been under the weather. Now that all of the sections are completed, I'll be back soon with updates to the introduction. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 20:15, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Request to update introduction
Hi there! On behalf of H&R Block (via their PR agency, Ketchum, as part of my work at Beutler Ink), I'm back with a request for the introduction of this article now that the other sections have been updated. You can find my draft below, along with the markup. This is intended to replace the existing introduction. I should note that there are no major issues with the current wording of the introduction and I'm not proposing any massive overhaul, these are just some tweaks to improve the flow, so it is hopefully a quick review for editors. These are the key changes I'm proposing in my draft:
 * Shuffling, rewriting, and reformatting some of the content to improve the flow
 * Adding wikilinks
 * Moving the company founders to the first paragraph
 * Replacing "currently" with "as of 2018"

Since I do have a financial conflict of interest, I won't edit the article myself and am looking for an uninvolved editors to review and make changes as appropriate. Do you have time for another review? Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk · COI) 18:50, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much to Whoisjohngalt for reviewing and making these few updates! With that, my requests for this page are complete. Thanks again! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 18:54, 13 June 2018 (UTC)