H&R Block is the world’s largest tax filing company that serves over 20 million users worldwide.
H&R Block approached me to help them build a tax-filing app in India. It’s not everyday that you get to lead the UX efforts of a $8 Billion company. They had a tax-filing service as their flagship product in the USA, but Indian tax system was too complex for them to port the existing solution directly.
On the other hand, it’s the complexity of the tax filing procedures which makes them successful in a relatively untapped market. People usually avoid the hassles of filing their taxes themselves & use an assisted service like the one H&R Block provides. I was their first ever international contract hire.
I started with the usual preliminary study of how the tax filing industry operates. The biggest insight I found early on is that the motivation for paying taxes in the US is tax returns which is practically non-existent in India. In fact despite being home to a massive 1+ Billion people, only 1% of the Indian population pays taxes. In the United States, and in other countries where H&R Block has been massively popular, taxpayers pay taxes to get tax returns. And H&R Block specializes in maximizing the returns. And since the situation is completely different in India, we had to look into other options.
I started with the usual preliminary study of how the tax filing industry operates. The biggest insight I found early on is that the motivation for paying taxes in the US is tax returns which is practically non-existent in India. In fact despite being home to a massive 1+ Billion people, only 1% of the Indian population pays taxes. In the United States, and in other countries where H&R Block has been massively popular, taxpayers pay taxes to get tax returns. And H&R Block specializes in maximizing the returns. And since the situation is completely different in India, we had to look into other options.
I started talking to people about their experience in filing taxes. And one of the most common complaints was the complicated paperwork. Tax filing is a hassle in India because the incomes in Indian families are very unregulated. When about 90% of people I spoke to complained about the exact same thing, I knew I was on to something. And I started working on the prototypes. Personas were created.
I started with the usual preliminary study of how the tax filing industry operates. The biggest insight I found early on is that the motivation for paying taxes in the US is tax returns which is practically non-existent in India. In fact despite being home to a massive 1+ Billion people, only 1% of the Indian population pays taxes.
There were 2 ways to file taxes. One, where you just upload your documents and everything was done automatically. And the other, where you were assigned a tax expert to help you file your taxes. The later was preferred by businesses and individuals with more complex income types. I built the UX for both and we hired an external agency to do the UI.
As part of marketing, we waived the fee for the first year. Over 1 lakh users filed their taxes using H&R Block in India.
99,997+
800%
H&R Block is the world’s largest tax filing company that serves over 20 million users worldwide.
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