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H & R Block History

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A publicly traded company is a corporation whose ownership is dispersed among the general public in several shares of stock which are liberally traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter markets. In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. H&R Block is a tax preparation company in North America, Australia, Brazil and India. The Kansas City-based company also offers banking, payroll, personal finance, and business consulting services; founded in 1955 by two brothers Henry W. Bloch and Richard Bloch. The Bloch’s are a very fine old Kansas City family and they’ve been quite generous to the community. In 1956, the Bloch’s decided to expand and picked New York City. The move was profitable, but neither brother wanted to move to New York, so they agreed to sell that regional operation to two local accountants. However, since the would-be buyers could not meet the asking price, the parties agreed the Bloch brothers would get $10,000, plus royalties from the tax operation, creating the first H&R Block franchise tax office. The Bloch brothers chose to spell the name "Block" with a K to guarantee the name is not mispronounced “blotch.” In the following years, H&R Block grew quickly and went public in 1962, then opened its first tax training school in 1965 to meet the demand for skillful tax professionals at its franchise offices. H& R Block today operates approximately 12,000 retail tax offices worldwide. H&R Block offers its own

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