TheTaxBook Selected as H&R Block's Exclusive In-Office Tax Reference Book

[Brad Imsdahl]

From http://www.thetaxbook.com/news_view.asp?ID=26

10/29/2009
TheTaxBook Selected as H&R Block's Exclusive In-Office Tax Reference Book for Their 13,000+ Tax Offices

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Meyer, Vice President
(952) 746-5276 Ext. 207
joe@thetaxbook.com

MINNETONKA, Minn. Oct. 26, 2009 -Tax Materials, Inc. has partnered with H&R Block, the world's largest tax service provider, to provide TheTaxBook as the exclusive in-office tax reference book for H&R Block tax professionals in offices nationwide.

Tax Materials, Inc., located in Minnetonka, Minn., is 100-percent American owned.

"Our dedicated staff works hard to publish the most relevant, easy to use, fast-answer tax reference books on the market. We are proud to be recognized as a valuable resource by a market leader like H&R Block." said Joe Meyer, Vice President of Tax Materials, Inc.

The magnitude of information tax professionals need at their fingertips during tax season is daunting. Last year alone saw more than 5,000 changes to the tax code. TheTaxBook authors take this massive amount of information and place it in a fast-answer format that makes finding answers easy.

"After a thorough evaluation, TheTaxBook was the clear leader," said Amy McAnarney, Executive Vice President of The Tax Institute at H&R Block. "TheTaxBook contains superior content, is easy to navigate, and is published by a company with experience we can trust."

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[JohnH]

Brad: Congratulations on the big order and the recognition. HRB clearly knows a quality product when they see it!

[S T]

Brad and Tax Book Staff

Kudos to the Tax Book, what a "feather in your cap"

The Tax Book is a "high quality reference source"

Sandy

[ChEAr$]

And little wonder why.

Back in about TB's second year, one of our Alabama society members, who worked for an HRB franchise in UA (Upper Alabama) persuaded her boss to buy what I seem to recall, was 40 copies. Since our society received a commission, it helped our treasury, and I enjoyed taking that check to the bank.
Ummm.. I think her name was Char, our contact with Taxbooks. if she's still there,
Brad, give her my regards.

[veritas]

I guess

we won't be getting as much business from H&R anymore.

[RLymanC]

H& R Taxbook

Lets all pray that they understand the vast wealth of information at their finger tips

[Corduroy Frog]

Well-deserved

What a clear vote of confidence!

I can't emphasize enough what a difference is made by practicing tax professionals doing the writing for other practicing tax professionals. People who know what we run into, know the answer, and know how to present it in a relevant format succinct enough to be crammed into a few hundred pages.

I (for one) have seen some of other writing styles by some reference books, and there are bland and space-consuming statements such as "Knowledge of capital gains treatment is an important factor in assisting clients as they encounter tax planning opportunities." Can you imagine wading through this sort of emptyspeak to find the answer to your question about holding periods?

Hats off to the writers for providing a clear edge in the product, and also to the rest of the TMI staff that we don't encounter on the message board, such as the abovementioned Char, who takes my order every year.

[Kurly]

H & R

Will this impact the delivery time for us small timers, ordering1 or 2 books?

[Brad Imsdahl]

Will this impact the delivery time for us small timers, ordering1 or 2 books?

The delivery time for everyone will not change. Unlike other publishing companies who have to outsource the work, we have our own production and shipping facilities that can handle any size order. That is why we can write about new tax law on December 1st, send the copy to layout, then down to our printing presses, and then off to our shipping department by December 15th. This is a process that takes up to six weeks for other publishing companies that outsource their printing and shipping.

In fact, if you read some of the articles under company news, http://www.thetaxbook.com/news_all.asp, you will notice in years past we actually stopped production mid-December after new tax legislation was signed into law, wrote about it, printed new copy, and started shipping updated books, all within just a few days. Something our competition did not do.

[Kurly]

Ttb

Thanks for the reply. This has been a great reference book along with the message board for years. Thanks for the great works.

Kurly

[Burke]

Will all the HRB people now be accessing this forum for questions? Or will they have their own? Hopefully, we won't be doing their training for them.

[Bees Knees]

Will all the HRB people now be accessing this forum for questions? Or will they have their own? Hopefully, we won't be doing their training for them.

I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from Augsburg College, a private liberal arts college located in Minneapolis, with a good reputation for those majoring in business. Four years out of college, I took the H&R Block course for preparing individual income tax returns. Six years after that, I took the H&R Block course for preparing partnership, corporation, and estate returns. I credit my having passed the Enrolled Agents exam that same year to me taking the two H&R Block courses.

I contend the training I received from H&R Block far exceeded the business training I received from Augsburg College. I believe their tax training far exceeds any four year College degree in taxes. The reason is H&R Block instructors are experienced tax professionals who sit across the desk from real tax clients doing tax returns during tax season. My College instructors were not practicing tax professionals. They taught from the text book, not experience.

I don’t think there is any question H&R Block employees receive quality training that helps them prepare a proper return. I’ve attended many tax seminars over the years, and none were superior to my H&R Block training. I think we should be honored to welcome more H&R Block employees on to this forum. You probably would be surprised to learn just how many contributors to this forum originally received their training from H&R Block.

[TaxmannEA]

I too received my initial training from H&R Block in the 1970's. The course at that time was very good in educating about tax law and procedures. I now teach an income tax course at our local junior college and have had several H&R employees in my course. They have all told me that now the training they receive is basically how to enter data into the computer. Evidently the level of actual tax law knowledge has decreased in that course in recent years. That saddens me as an ex H&R employee.

[Snaggletoof]

HRB people

Will all the HRB people now be accessing this forum for questions? Or will they have their own? Hopefully, we won't be doing their training for them.

Burke, I hope so. We already have a few Block people like White Oleander, Gary Marmer, and Oxtrainer. Oleander is an extra sharp lady, Gary works for Block but is a retired Nuclear Physicist.

Some of them will be neophytes and will seek elementary-level answers as you suggest. But we already have several of them also on this board, and even old-timers like myself are sometimes brain-dead. I can name a half-dozen very familiar folks on this board who 3-4 years ago I perceived to be beginners and now are quite comfortable with advanced topics.

If in anyone's opinion, there is a perception that the topics are launched by beginners and early trainees, no one is obliged to respond. I for one am happy about the recent TMI success and it will serve to strengthen the product in years to come.

[Bees Knees]

They have all told me that now the training they receive is basically how to enter data into the computer. Evidently the level of actual tax law knowledge has decreased in that course in recent years.

I have a friend who took the course 2 years ago. She showed me the course materials. It still teaches tax law, and the classroom instruction was much more than just how to enter data into the computer.