Kathy Pickering, The Tax Institute

Kathy Pickering

Executive director of The Tax Institute and vice president of regulatory affairs at H&R Block

Every year, 150 million Americans file taxes and 97 percent of them rely on some type of help. H&R Block is the only tax preparation company to offer consumers complete choice on how they get the tax help they need. Not only is H&R Block providing tax help on your terms, but we’re also pioneering upfront, transparent pricing for all our tax prep methods to remove the stress and mystery of wondering what you’ll pay.

Kathy Pickering

Executive director of The Tax Institute and vice president of regulatory affairs at H&R Block

The reality is, the tax filing experience will feel familiar: you’ll still gather all your tax and financial documents, calculate if you should itemize or take the standard deduction, determine if you can take advantage of some of the new changes and prepare your tax return.

Kathy Pickering

Executive director of The Tax Institute and vice president of regulatory affairs at H&R Block

The IRS also experienced a 50 percent drop in the number of fraudulent returns that made it into IRS systems, which shows that anti-fraud measures are working to prevent fraud – not just identify it and address it after it occurs. The more we can root out and eliminate fraud, the more we can protect taxpayers – not just the victims of tax refund identity theft, but also the taxpayers who claim refundable credits that thieves so often target and undermine.

Kathy Pickering

Executive director of The Tax Institute and vice president of regulatory affairs at H&R Block

H&R Block was among the first to suggest this public-private partnership that became the IRS security summit. We will continue to lead by example and work with the IRS and others in tax preparation to protect all taxpayers. It is critical for the integrity of the filing system to continue our focus on fighting identity theft refund fraud.