KANSAS CITY, Mo. – H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB) today reported tax season results for the interim periods March 1 -15, 2008 and Nov. 1, 2007 – March 15, 2008. Excluding lending-products-only clients, Economic Stimulus Package (ESP) rebate filers, and the impact of an additional day due to leap year, retail clients served were estimated to be up 3.6 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, over the prior year.Total reported retail client growth for the March 1 -15 period was 8.2 percent, of which approximately 4.6 percent was related to ESP filers.  On a year-to-date basis through March 15, total reported retail clients grew 3.3 percent of which 1 percent is estimated to be related to ESP filers and 1 percent is due to the additional leap year day.
The reported increase in net average retail fee for the March 1 -15period was 2.3 percent, but would have been approximately 5.8 percent without the impact of ESP filers. On a year-to-date basis, the reported increase in net average retail fee was 5.5 percent and would have been approximately 6.5 percent without ESP.
ESP filers are individuals who would not otherwise be required to file an income tax return, but who are filing in 2008 in order to be eligible to receive rebate checks under the ESP program.  The company is offering special low fees to ESP filers, which affects calculations of average fees. In addition, determination of which clients are ESP filers is also subjective, which affects the precision of retail client growth percentages. The numbers set forth above reflect the company’s best estimate of client growth and average fee adjusted for the impact of one-time ESP filers as well as the impact of leap year.
Digital clients served were down 4 percent in the March 1 -15 period and down 6.5 percent year-to-date through March 15, representing a slight improvement from a decline of 6.8 percent for the year-to-date period ending February 29.
H&R Block plans to release interim results through March 31 for its U.S. tax operations on April 14, 2008 before the NYSE market open.
