Is Kansas City an H&R Block town? Interactive map compares it with TurboTax
Who does your taxes, Kansas City? H&R Block or TurboTax?
East of The Paseo, homegrown H&R Block seems to dominate. Elsewhere, not so much.
That's the impression created by an interactive map from Esri, a California-based company using technology that combines data analytics and maps.
Esri says it used data at the census tract and block group level. It looked at whether taxpayers used H&R Block, TurboTax, a certified public accountant or other tax professional, or did their taxes on their own. Esri then credited that block to which ever method was used the most.
Blue dots, representing blocks that H&R Block dominated, decorate much of Kansas City east of The Paseo on the Esri map. TurboTax's yellow dots take over west of The Paseo and spread into the suburbs. CPAs and other tax professionals — the purple dots — populate the southern metro area and suburbs.
H&R Block said it handled 19.4 million US tax returns last year.
"As a Kansas City-based company for 63 years, we especially love helping clients in our hometown community find every credit and deduction they deserve," an H&R Block spokeswoman said in an email.
TurboTax reported 34.6 million "units" last year, including its desktop and online tax preparation products.
A yellow TurboTax dot on the map doesn't mean H&R Block was shut out. Zooming in shows how often each tax preparation method was used in that block of the map.
In a yellow-dotted block north of 47th Street in Kansas City, Kan., H&R Block handled 142 tax returns, according to the map's details available by clicking on the dot. That comprised 49 digital customers and 93 retail store customers.
TurboTax had 178 software users in the block and 105 online customers, the map showed. The CPA and others category claimed 135 returns, and manual tax preparation claimed 126.
So Esri put a yellow dot on the map.
This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 11:01 AM with the headline "Is Kansas City an H&R Block town? Interactive map compares it with TurboTax."