East Bay Writer Worked From the Inside at H&R Block
By ERIC BARTON
Oakland’s East Bay Express this week features this tell-all story written by a reporter who worked as a tax preparer for Kansas City-based H&R Block. The reporter, Steve Koppman, writes that Block preys on the poor, pushes bogus “add ons” on its customers in order to drive up profits and employs people at minimum wage with false promises of bonuses.
Koppman enrolled in Block’s tax-preparation course in October 2006, a course that potential employees pay $200 to take. Koppman then worked as a tax preparer in Walnut Creek, California. As a tax preparer, Koppman claims he was exposed to Block’s “bizarrely byzantine” employee bonus program, which he describes this way:
Employees are given credit for each tax return they complete and additional Block service they sell. Employees also receive extra commission for each year of prior Block employment and each level of advanced training they attain. If the total commission on these items exceeds the employee’s hourly base salary, the excess will be paid as a bonus several weeks after tax season is over.
This legendary “bonus” is what employees pin their meager hopes on. I guess I was a relatively productive first-year worker, so even though I only worked part-time for Block for a month beyond training, I got a tiny “bonus” of about a dollar an hour, better than most of my first-year colleagues
.
As for the add-ons, Koppman claims many were bogus attempts to simply jack up the cost of tax preparation:
To make any money as preparers, we were pressed to push add-ons. These are services at the heart of lawsuits Block has paid more than $100 million to settle in recent years, according to company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Pitch left a voice mail and e-mailed Block’s media-relations office in Kansas City this morning. This afternoon, I received this response from Vice President of Communications Linda McDougall:
Eric,
While we would hope that your publication not link to an article we believe to be inaccurate, we ask that you identify the article as an opinion piece and not as a news story.
Our statement is as follows:
“We do not believe this article accurately describes the operations of H&R Block. The article reflects the opinion of only one person who does not appear to understand the company’s training programs, products and services, and compensation guidelines, and who did not respond to the company’s offer to personally address his concerns. It’s disappointing that Mr. Koppman would choose to air his grievances in this manner.”
Linda McDougall
H&R Block
