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Yahoo tax site enlists H&R Block's help

The tax preparation stalwart will supply online preparation services and e-filing capabilities to the portal giant's Tax Center under a new partnership.

Greg Sandoval Former Staff writer
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. Based in New York, Sandoval is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at @sandoCNET.
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Greg Sandoval
Tax preparation stalwart H&R Block will supply tax services for Yahoo's Tax Center under a new partnership, the two companies announced Monday.

Yahoo customers will have access to H&R Block's Internet tax tools, including online tax preparation services and electronic filing. The move is another sign that H&R Block is trying to make up ground on business-software maker Intuit, which operates Intuit.com and makes the tax preparation software TurboTax.

But Kansas City, Mo.-based H&R Block has a ways to go, according to figures from PC data, a company that tracks Web site traffic. Intuit's online tax preparation site is outpacing Hrblock.com in terms of monthly visitors. In January, the TurboTax.com URL saw 2.8 million visitors compared with Hrblock.com's 1 million. Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit also sees an additional 1.3 million visitors to its ShopIntuit.com site, where it sells tax preparation software.

Customers at both H&R Block's and Intuit's sites have the option of preparing their taxes online or downloading the tax preparation software.

For Yahoo, the deal gives the Santa Clara, Calif.-based portal giant another opportunity to bulk up its financial services offerings.

In addition to online tax preparation, H&R Block will also review a tax filing and provide tax tips to Yahoo customers for an additional charge. Yahoo visitors can also provide their tax information to an H&R Block tax professional to complete.