There has been a recent uprising by H&R Block over the TurboTax 2013 television commercials focused on the accounting experience of TurboTax staff while also pointing out the lack of experience of tax preparers from major tax preparation companies like Block and Jackson Hewitt. These ads tried to undermine the credibility of tax professionals from other companies. They claimed that these professionals worked in unskilled labor jobs outside of tax season and thus, that they were not qualified to prepare your taxes.

They made a few valid points about the ads, but ultimately, the district court ruled in favor of allowing the TurboTax 2013 ads to continue to air. H&R Block was not mentioned by name in any of the TurboTax 2013 adverts although it was easily assumed that the ads were about Intuit’s main competitor.

When presenting their case against the advertisements, H&R Block called the ads unfair, and to illustrate, they cited several points they felt did not represent the competition fairly. In spite of the fact that many of the advert’s claims were true, H&R Block claimed that the ads undermined people who have to work two jobs including preparing taxes from January to April. They also claimed that the ads were insulting to people who work in the plumbing or retail industries.

The TurboTax 2013 ads focused on tax professionals who were under-trained, under-prepared, and under experienced. In contrast, the TurboTax 2013 staff was portrayed to be knowledgeable and well educated although the company doesn’t provide face-to-face tax filing like other companies in the space.

In retort, H&R Block pointed out that TurboTax does not actually prepare any returns while they have prepared millions over the last sixty years. As technology makes tax preparation software easier and easier to use, more battles like this may occur. Ultimately, this was a battle about whether it is better to file your taxes with a tax professional who does not have an accounting degree or with software that has been developed to provide output similar to what a CPA would be able to produce.