Gone are the days when you had to stand in long queues or scuttle to your tax advisor’s office to submit your income related documents. Now all of this can be done online from the comfort of your home or office, courtesy H&R Block.
In a previous article, we had covered how H&R Block has built a robust team of 300 tax advisors to serve the tax preparation needs of individual tax payers. It does not stop there though. The real magic lies in the way H&R Block delivers these services to its 150,000 plus clients in a seamless manner.
How exactly do these tax experts serve the clients so flawlessly? The answer lies in H&R Block’s pioneering work in the Assisted Income Tax E-Filing space. This service is a classic combination of expertise and convenience at your fingertips. In this a tax expert prepares and e-files your tax returns online while being in touch with you over phone, email and chat, without you having to visit any H&R Block office.
In a market that is cluttered with options of Do-It-Yourself portals, where one can login and file their taxes themselves, this option is a breath of fresh air. A team of highly qualified and trained IT experts have developed the assisted e-filing application that interacts with the clients and routes them to the right tax advisor depending on their tax complexity. It infuses the convenience of DIY and professional expertise of a tax expert. This helps people overcome the hassles of having to figure out all the tax calculations on their own or spending hours travelling and waiting at a tax advisor’s office.
So how does it work? Once a client registers with H&R Block’s assisted e-filing service, he just needs to select all the sources of income applicable to him and upload all relevant documents that serve as a proof of his income and investments. These documents once uploaded form a part of his permanent online repository and can be accessed through his ‘MyAccount’ page. The use of a Verisign secured data encryption makes this process absolutely safe and secure for the client.
How is this unique? Much like leading e-commerce sites customize your online shopping experience based on your prior purchases, the technology driving the Assisted E-Filing process, makes sure that clients are routed to the right tax advisor, based on the answers to an initial set of questions posed by the application, post registration. The application also aids an advisor communicating with the client, by sharing the tax computations and summaries at each step. All client calls are directly routed to their dedicated tax expert without the client having to wait in long queues on phone. Vishal Sankla, the Operations Head at H&R Block says, “We have an intelligently developed integrated application that takes care of every need of our advisors. Be it client calling, return preparation, receiving and sending messages to clients or sending automated updates on the progress of tax return preparation and e-filing. We even have a facility of maintaining a scheduler that ensures our advisors never miss out on timely follow up with the clients.”
The most important feature of this service is the human interaction that gives it a personalized approach and an assurance that an expert will figure out a client’s tax problems whenever they need it. H&R Block also has a tool called Client Management System that is embedded in the tax preparation application. This tool helps in tracking the entire life cycle of a client with H&R Block and forms the basis of providing a stellar client experience.
The company believes in making Online Tax Filing a preferred approach to filing taxes and encourages more and more clients each year to switch to assisted e-filing. Their sincere efforts and approach to designing a robust system and an army of trained tax advisors is a testimony to this. Year round support for all client tax queries comes as the icing on the cake for this holistic service. This is echoed by Anna Dias, a customer who has been filing with H&R Block for the past 2 years, “What I like is the perfect blend of professionalism and personalisation. It is extremely simple to do and at the same time you have someone to assist you at all times and I think this is an awesome combination”.
About H&R Block
H&R Block, is the world’s largest income tax filing company with over 25 Million returns filed worldwide annually. In India since 2012, it offers income tax return filing services for salaried individuals via three distinct methods – Free Online self e-filing, Assisted tax e-filing and In-person tax e-filing.
H&R Block provides a highly intuitive online tool through their free online self e-filing, which automatically extracts data from your Form 16, to help you file your taxes online yourself in 3 easy steps, free of charge. For people needing help with tax filing, you can utilize the Assisted Tax Filing Services. Here, you have a dedicated tax expert assigned to you, to help you understand your tax modalities and prepare your returns for you. If you prefer a personal interaction, you can walk into any of their 6 offices located across India and enjoy personalized services.
They provide a blend of tax filing methods suited to the needs of clients as well as dedicated year round support. H&R Block makes the tax filing process simple, convenient and hassle free. This is what makes H&R Block India’s best tax filing service provider.
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