H&R Block is the comparison that most store owners actually run in their heads, because it is the brand with a lit sign on the road they drive to the post office. The question is not whether it is a real company. It is whether the extra money buys anything a person with a Schedule C and one state return will ever use.
I priced both this week, off the vendors’ own live pages, and the gap for a self-employed filer with one state is close to a hundred dollars. That is a specific number, so this article is about what that hundred dollars is buying and when it is worth paying.
A note before anything else. This is general information, not tax advice. Filing situations differ, and the difference between two returns with the same revenue can be larger than the difference between any two products on this page. Nothing here is a substitute for a conversation with a person who has read your actual books.
Disclosure. The links to e-file.com on this page are monetised affiliate links and they pay this site a commission if you file through them. The H&R Block link is not monetised. It is a plain redirect to hrblock.com that earns nothing, and I have checked the target of that redirect rather than assuming it. That means the product I get paid on is the cheaper one, which is a bias worth knowing about while you read a price comparison. Where H&R Block is the better answer, I say so, and there are two situations below where it clearly is. The Shopify, Bizee and Hiscox links in the closing section are affiliate links too and they pay this site.
The Federal and State Numbers, Before You Read Another Word
e-file.com lists Premium Plus at $49.99 federal plus $32.99 state, which is $82.98 for a self-employed return with one state. Verified on their own pricing page on 9 September 2026. Prices change during filing season, so check the live page before you buy.
The Prices, Verified This Week, From Each Vendor’s Own Page
Every figure in the table below came off the vendor’s own live page on 9 September 2026. I did not take H&R Block’s numbers from e-file.com’s marketing chart, and there is a good reason for that which I will get to in a moment.
| Tier | e-file.com | H&R Block |
|---|---|---|
| Free federal tier | $0 federal, state costs $32.99 | $0 federal, $0 per state filed |
| Middle tier | Deluxe Plus $29.99, or $25.49 with coupon code FED15OFF | Deluxe $65 |
| Investment tier | Not offered as a separate tier | Premium $105 |
| Self-employed tier | Premium Plus $49.99, or $42.49 with coupon code FED15OFF | Self-Employed $130 |
| State return | $32.99 flat, every tier | $49 per state, every paid tier |
| Human review add-on | Not offered | Tax Pro Review $65 on top of the tier price |
| Full preparation by a person | Professional preparation from $89.95 | Tax Pro filing, all options starting at $99 |
Run the self-employed line with one state and the arithmetic is not subtle. e-file.com is $82.98 at list, or $75.48 if the FED15OFF coupon is live when you check out. H&R Block is $179. That is a difference of $96.02 at list price and $103.52 with the coupon applied.
A Discrepancy Worth Naming
e-file.com publishes its own competitor comparison chart, and that chart currently lists H&R Block Premium at $95 with a footnote saying the competitor prices were retrieved on 29 July 2026. When I opened hrblock.com on 9 September 2026, the Premium tier was $105.
Neither company is lying. A price moved and a marketing page did not follow it. But it is exactly why I priced H&R Block on H&R Block’s own site instead of trusting the chart of the company that pays me, and it is why you should treat any comparison table, including mine, as a snapshot with a date on it.
What the Extra Ninety Six Dollars Actually Buys
Three things, and only one of them is likely to matter to you.
1. A Physical Office You Can Walk Into
This is the real product. H&R Block runs storefronts in most towns, and its in-person and drop-off filing options start at $99 according to its own tax office page. If your return goes sideways in March, there is a door.
e-file.com has no offices. It has phone support on the Deluxe and Premium tiers and a web help system, which is a different thing entirely. If the value you want is a chair across from a person, that value is real and e-file.com does not sell it at any price.
Worth noting though: the $99 office price is not the $130 online price. Those are two separate products. Buying the Self-Employed online tier does not get you an office visit, and walking into an office does not cost you $130 as a starting point. Do not blend them.
2. A Human Reviewing Your Return Before It Files
Tax Pro Review is a $65 add-on. Stack it on Deluxe at $65 and the total is $130 plus $49 per state, which H&R Block states plainly on its Tax Pro Review page. Stack it on Self-Employed and you are at $195 plus state.
e-file.com has no equivalent. Its Premium Plus tier lists IRS audit assistance as an included feature, but audit assistance after the fact and a person checking your Schedule C before it transmits are not the same service and should not be priced as if they were.
3. Brand Familiarity
Which is worth something psychologically and nothing mechanically. Both companies are IRS authorised e-file providers. The return that arrives at the IRS is the same return.
The Free Tiers Are Not the Same Free, and This Is the Biggest Trap
Both companies advertise a free federal tier and the eligibility rules are completely different.
H&R Block states on its online filing page that approximately 52 percent of filers qualify for its Free Edition, and it defines that as simple tax situations only, meaning Form 1040 with no schedules except Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Student Loan Interest and Retirement Plan Distributions. State filing is $0 on that tier, which is genuinely generous.
e-file.com defines its free federal Basic tier as single or married filing jointly, less than $100,000 in wages, limited deductions and limited credits claimed. State filing is $32.99 even on the free tier, so the cheapest possible e-file.com outcome with a state return is $32.99 and not zero.
Here is what matters to anyone reading this site. A Schedule C disqualifies you from both free tiers. A store owner with business income is buying a paid tier at either company, and the free tier comparison is a distraction from the only line that applies to you: $82.98 against $179.
Where H&R Block Is Genuinely the Better Buy
Two situations, and I would recommend it in both even though it pays me nothing.
You have a live IRS problem or you know one is coming. A notice on the doormat, a prior year you never filed, an audit letter, a nexus question you have been avoiding. Buy the office visit. Ninety six dollars is a rounding error against a problem that involves correspondence with the IRS, and the person in the office can look at documents you cannot describe over a support ticket.
You are filing multiple state returns. H&R Block charges $49 per state, e-file.com charges $32.99 per state. On one state e-file.com wins by $16.01 per state, but the federal gap is what dominates on a single state return. The real reason to look hard at H&R Block on multi-state is not the state price, it is that multi-state returns are where the judgement calls live, and a $65 human review starts looking cheap when you are apportioning income across two or three states you may or may not have nexus in.
There is a third case that is less about price. If your spouse or your business partner will not use software and will use an office, buy the office. A return that gets filed on time at $179 beats a return that sits unfinished at $82.98.
Where e-file.com Is Genuinely the Better Buy
One situation, and it happens to be the most common one on this site.
You run a store, you have a Schedule C, your books are in reasonable shape, you file in one state, and you have done this before. That filer is buying the same set of forms from both companies and paying roughly $96 more at H&R Block for a storefront they will not visit and a review they will not buy.
The flat $32.99 state fee matters more than it looks. Most of this industry prices state filing as a percentage of how badly they think you need it, and it climbs during the season. A flat number you can plan around is worth something, and it is one of the few structural differences between these two products rather than a marketing difference.
If Your Return Is a Schedule C and One State, This Is the Cheaper Door
$49.99 federal plus $32.99 state at list, against $130 plus $49 at H&R Block. e-file.com lists business and personal income and all credit schedules on its Premium Plus tier. If you have a live IRS notice, buy the office visit instead, and I mean that.
The Free Options Neither Company Advertises to You
Before you pay either of them, two things exist that cost nothing and that both companies have a commercial reason not to lead with.
IRS Free File is a partnership between the IRS and a coalition of software companies. The guided software route is available to filers with adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less, and the IRS states plainly that you have to start at IRS.gov to get it, because going directly to a partner’s commercial site does not give you the Free File version. That is documented on the IRS Free File page and it is the single most under-used thing in consumer tax software.
Free File Fillable Forms is the other one. It is available at any income level, it has no state filing, and the IRS describes it as limited calculations with you doing the work. If your return is genuinely simple and you know what goes where, it is free forever and neither of the companies on this page will ever mention it to you.
There is also a genuinely free commercial product that files both federal and state at zero, and it handles Schedule C. That comparison has its own article, because the answer there is more complicated than the answer here.
What the Real Bill Looks Like for a Store Owner
Prices only mean something once you attach them to a filer. Here are three, priced at list on 9 September 2026.
| Filer | e-file.com total | H&R Block total | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| W-2 only, one state, no schedules | $32.99, free federal plus state | $0, free federal and free state | H&R Block cheaper by $32.99 |
| Store owner, Schedule C, one state | $82.98, Premium Plus plus state | $179, Self-Employed plus state | e-file.com cheaper by $96.02 |
| Store owner, Schedule C, two states | $115.97 | $228 | e-file.com cheaper by $112.03 |
Read the first row again, because it is the row that gets left out of comparison articles written by people who get paid on one of the columns. If you have a plain W-2 return and no schedules, H&R Block files your federal and your state for nothing, and e-file.com charges you $32.99 for the state. On that return H&R Block wins outright and I have no interest in pretending otherwise.
The second row is the row that describes almost everyone who reads this site, and it is a $96 gap for the same set of forms.
Deadlines and Forms, Sourced, Because Most Tax Content Guesses
I am not going to state a threshold or a deadline I have not checked against the IRS this week, so here is the short verified list.
The individual filing deadline for calendar year filers is 15 April, and the IRS notes that if day 15 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the due date moves to the next business day. The IRS when to file page currently shows 15 April 2026 as the posted date for the cycle in progress, and the date for the following cycle is not yet posted there. Do not let any article tell you a future year’s date with confidence it has not earned.
An extension is Form 4868 and it buys six months to file, not six months to pay. The IRS states that an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay and that you should pay what you owe by the original due date to avoid possible penalties. Both products on this page will file an extension for you.
On self-employment, the IRS self-employed individuals tax center states that you have to file an income tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more, and that estimated tax is paid using Form 1040-ES. Net profit or loss comes off Schedule C and self-employment tax comes off Schedule SE. That is the whole architecture of a store owner’s return, and both companies support all of it at their paid tiers.
Timing, and Why This Article Exists in September
Tax software pricing is not stable. It is lowest in the autumn and in early January and it climbs as April approaches, which is the opposite of how most people shop for it. Both of these companies raise prices during the season, and the $65 and $130 tiers you see in September are not a promise about March.
The practical move is to decide which product you are using now, while the numbers are calm, and then buy it in January rather than in April. That is worth more than any coupon code either company will offer you.
One more thing about coupon codes. e-file.com’s site currently promotes FED15OFF in the body of its pricing page while the footer on some pages still references an older code. Do not assume the code in an article, including this one, is live. Try it at checkout and see what the total says.
Running the Business Behind the Store
Tax software is downstream of everything else. What actually decides your bill is what you sell, what margin you sell it at, and whether you have an entity and books that make the return a data entry job instead of an archaeology project.
The niche decision comes first, because a category with real margin produces a return worth optimising and a category without one does not. The list of proven high-ticket niches is where I would start if you are still choosing.
If the model itself is new to you, the explanation of what high-ticket dropshipping actually is covers why a smaller number of larger orders changes both the economics and the bookkeeping.
Supplier terms drive cost of goods sold, which is the single largest number on a store’s Schedule C. The complete guide to finding high-ticket suppliers is more valuable to your tax bill than any software choice on this page.
Entity choice changes which return you file at all, and it is the decision people put off for exactly one year too long. The guide to business formation for high-ticket dropshipping covers the trade-offs honestly.
The working stack behind all of it is small. Most of these stores run on Shopify. The entity is usually formed through Bizee, which keeps the formation invoice in one place for the first year file.
Product liability cover from Hiscox or another carrier is the third piece, because suppliers ask for a certificate before they approve a dealer account.
If you would rather not spend eighteen months assembling that yourself, my team builds and launches these stores through the done-for-you store build and launch service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does e-file.com actually handle a Schedule C?
e-file.com lists business and personal income and all credit schedules as features of its Premium Plus tier on its own pricing page, which is the tier a store owner would buy. I am quoting their claim rather than making one for them, because I have not filed a return through their product this season. If your return involves inventory in Part III of Schedule C and a home office on Form 8829, confirm both are supported inside the product before you pay, since that check takes two minutes and undoing a purchase does not.
Is H&R Block’s free tier really free for a side hustle?
No. H&R Block defines its Free Edition as Form 1040 with no schedules except Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Student Loan Interest and Retirement Plan Distributions. A Schedule C is a schedule, so 1099 or store income pushes you to a paid tier. The company states that approximately 52 percent of filers qualify, which by definition means roughly half do not.
What does IRS audit assistance on the Premium Plus tier actually cover?
e-file.com lists it as an included feature and does not publish a detailed scope on its pricing page, so the honest answer is that the scope is not published where I could read it. Treat included audit assistance as a support channel, not as representation before the IRS, unless the vendor’s own terms say otherwise in writing. Audit representation is a specific service with a specific meaning and it is generally not what a $49.99 consumer product is selling.
Which one is faster to get through?
Neither company publishes a credible time-to-complete figure, and any article that gives you one in minutes is quoting marketing copy. What actually determines your filing time is whether your bookkeeping is categorised before you start. A store owner with a clean profit and loss finishes either product in an evening, and a store owner reconstructing twelve months from bank statements does not finish either one in a week.
Can I switch products between years?
Yes, and there is no penalty for it. The friction is that prior year data does not carry across, so you will re-key basic information and you will not get automatic carryforward of things like depreciation schedules. Keep a PDF of last year’s complete return before you switch, because you will need figures off it and getting a copy out of an old account you no longer pay for is unpleasant.
Does the state price difference ever outweigh the federal difference?
It takes six states before H&R Block’s $49 per state and e-file.com’s $32.99 per state close a $96 federal gap, and almost nobody files six state returns. In practice the federal tier price decides this comparison, and the state fee is a secondary consideration until you are genuinely multi-state.
Bottom Line
For a store owner with a Schedule C, one state, and no live IRS problem, e-file.com does the same job for about $96 less and I would use it. That is the honest answer even though it is also the answer that pays me, which is why the rest of this article spent so long on the cases where it is wrong.
H&R Block is the right call if you have a notice, an unfiled year, a genuinely messy multi-state situation, or a household member who will only do this sitting across a desk from someone. In those cases the premium is not a brand tax, it is the price of a service that e-file.com does not sell.
And if your return is a plain W-2 with no schedules, use H&R Block’s free tier or IRS Free File and pay nothing at all. The reader that description fits should not be buying software from anyone.
For the argument against a product that is free for federal and state and still handles a Schedule C, read the comparison against Cash App Taxes, which is a harder case for e-file.com than this one and I do not pretend otherwise.
Decide Now, Buy in January, File in February
$82.98 at list for a self-employed federal return plus one state, against $179 at H&R Block. Both prices verified on the vendors’ own pages on 9 September 2026 and both will move before April. This is general information and not tax advice.
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Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
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