H&R Block

It’s unfortunate you can’t give 0 stars. This place is a waste of money! They charge you per form they fill out to complete your income tax instead of a flat fee.
I am a Washington state resident who, at the time, had been living and working abroad for a few years. I relocated to the Seattle area to attend graduate school. I realize not everyone is familiar with the tax protocol for professionals working internationally and I asked before sitting down with a ‘tax professional’ at the H&R block offices whether someone there would be able capable of completing my return. I was assigned Sandra Ellis — she assured me she would be able to do the return. Unfortunately this was far from the truth.
I was told during this first meeting that she would be unable to tell me the cost of preparing my return because H&R Block has a policy of charging per form the CPA fills out. Since each form is associated with its own fee it would be impossible for her to know for sure how much the return would cost. By the third time I met with Ms. Ellis the fee for that year’s tax preparation had exceeded $ 350 (the most I have ever spent on a single year’s return — even returns prepared in NY and London cost less). Ms. Ellis also told me that I owed a considerable amount of tax to the federal government. I paid both fees.
The following year when tax season rolled around, I asked for referrals in the Seattle area, and found an incredible accountant named Lynn Parsley. In addition to preparing the current year’s return, I asked that she review the return prepared by H&R Block. What she found was astonishing! I had overpaid by more than $ 1000.00 — courtesy of Ms. Ellis’ ineptitude and H&R Block’s lack of oversight. Thankfully it was early enough to correct and I was able to recover the money I’d lost.
Needless to say, i will never use another H and R block! The discrepancy caused me to overpay and the service was appalling. When I confronted the manager of the location with the discrepancy, no effort was made to rectify it and I was finally told that the period during which I could lodge a complaint had expired.
H and R block is a scam. I have no idea if this kind of customer service is endemic to their brand or if the location in Shoreline is a particularly poor example of their work. I’m surprised they haven’t been cited by the BBB.

I get my taxes done here. Gale is very knowledgeable of tricky tax situations.

I got my taxes done there. Good service but very expensive. However my situation was complicated.