H&R Block 2008 Press Center

Learn more about our co-founders Henry Bloch and Richard Bloch.

The American Dream That Began on Main Street Now Lives on Main Streets Everywhere

Main Street in Kansas City, Mo., stretches more than 70 blocks, from the riverfront through residential neighborhoods. On its 13th block sits a new, 17-story office building completed in 2006. Its familiar green glass welcomes visitors and employees to H&R Block's World Headquarters.

It is here, perhaps, where co-founder Henry W. Bloch can best appreciate what he and his brother, Richard, accomplished. When they started their bookkeeping business, it was with one office - on Main Street even then, just a few blocks farther north - and little interest in doing taxes. Today, the company they built has transformed itself into America's financial partner, operating out of more than 12,500 tax offices in the United States and more than 1,300 more locations in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, serving nearly 19.5 million taxpayers worldwide. What happened in between is a success story marked by tenacity, persistence, and the promise of the American dream.

A Bomber, a Library, an Idea

Henry and Richard Bloch were born and raised in Kansas City, the second and third sons of a prominent Kansas City lawyer. Henry graduated from the University of Michigan, while Richard graduated from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania (their older brother, Leon, studied law at the University of Missouri-Columbia). During Henry's junior year, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, which eventually sent him to Harvard Business School to study for a military career. While there, a chance visit to the library played a pivotal role in the birth of the brothers' business.

"I always wanted to do something different, something more than just a job, something to contribute to society," Henry recalls. "And my brothers and I were always thinking up different businesses we could start, but none of them felt right. Then one day I saw a little pamphlet in the Harvard library that gave me the idea we were looking for."

The "little pamphlet" was a copy of a speech a Harvard professor had delivered to a group of insurance men. In it, he said there were three kinds of business: big business, small business, and labor. "Big business and labor were both very powerful, but small business really had no one to turn to," he said, "and small business was really the backbone of this country. The future", he declared, "would be in helping small businesses."

Henry excitedly wrote his brothers about his vision of providing accounting, temporary workers, collection, management services, and more for small business.

The full list included well over a hundred services - even income tax preparation.

Henry worked as a stockbroker briefly after he got out of the Air Force. Then, with a $5,000 loan from his aunt, the 24-year-old Henry rented a storeroom office for $50 a month and opened United Business Company. Working with his brother Leon, Henry landed a bookkeeping assignment for a hamburger stand eight blocks south of the rented Main Street office. More accounts followed and the business grew. Eventually, Leon returned to law school, and Richard became Henry's partner.

Luck Favors the Prepared - and the Preparers

Business thrived and the company grew into bigger offices up and down Main Street. By 1954 (the beginning of the same basic tax code the United States still uses), United Business Company had 12 employees keeping books for various clients. Henry and Richard were working seven days a week, long into each night. Something had to give.

"We had been doing taxes for a guy named John White who worked in display advertising at The Kansas City Star," Henry recalls. "We told him we couldn't keep doing his taxes because we were too busy with our other work. But he suggested, 'Why don't you really try making a business out of taxes before you get out entirely?'"

So John White went back to the Star and had a small ad made up that showed a man behind an eight ball, with a simple headline: "Taxes, $5." He convinced the Blochs to run the ad twice. The day the first ad ran, Henry was out visiting customers when he got a message to call his office. Richard answered breathlessly.

"Hank, get back here as quick as you can," he said. "We've got an office full of people!"

Later Henry learned just how well-timed their ad was. Until the mid-'50s, the Internal Revenue Service had actually filled out tax returns at no charge for anyone who went to their local IRS office. Errors were common, however, and when people complained, the IRS began eliminating the service. The Blochs' first ad appeared at the same time that Kansas Citians were discovering the IRS would no longer do their tax returns.

H&R Block is Born

On Jan. 25, 1955, Henry and Richard Bloch replaced United Business Company with a new firm that specialized exclusively in income tax return preparation: H&R Block Inc. Within weeks, the company grossed nearly a third of the annual volume United Business Company had taken years to develop. The IRS was about to stop filling out taxpayers' forms in New York, too, so H&R Block opened seven offices there in 1956.

A year later, H&R Block began opening franchise offices, and H&R Block doors swung open on Main Streets across the country. The company went public on Feb. 13, 1962, with a $300,000 offering - 75,000 shares at $4 per share. H&R Block became listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1969. Two years later, having survived lung cancer, Richard decided to retire and devote his time to supporting cancer research and education.

By 1978, H&R Block offices prepared more than one out of every nine tax returns filed in the United States. In a 1986 test with the IRS, H&R Block filed 22,000 returns electronically from two sites. The test was a success: Electronic filing significantly reduced the amount of time required for a taxpayer to receive a refund. More than a decade later, H&R Block's trademarked "Rapid Refund" service has become synonymous with electronic filing. Now, the company files nearly half of the total number of returns filed electronically with the IRS.

The "New" H&R Block

Consumers today want more from their local H&R Block office than just tax preparation. They already think of H&R Block as a financial services company, and they've asked America's most trusted tax partner to become their complete personal financial partner.

To meet the needs of its clients, H&R Block has transformed itself from a company focused exclusively on tax preparation to a company that provides comprehensive financial services. On Jan. 12, 2000, H&R Block announced a complete menu of financial services, including brokerage services, annuities, mutual funds, and IRAs, would be available through the company's H&R Block Financial Centers and at its expanded Web site.

In July 2000, H&R Block put a new "face" on the company when it introduced a new logo and brand identity program. The announcement further reflects the company's transformation from the nation's most trusted tax preparer to America's year-round financial partner. Just one month earlier, Henry Bloch announced his retirement from the company he founded. Henry stepped down as chairman and became honorary chairman of H&R Block in September 2000.

Today mainstream Americans can continue to look to H&R Block as an affordable - and approachable - partner. The "new" H&R Block is poised to help Americans meet their financial needs.