H&R Block Franchise

H&R Block, a H&R Block Inc franchise, has been franchising since 1956 - 1 years after the concept was founded in 1955 , currently with 9,000 total locations (6,000 franchised, 3,000 company-owned, a 67% franchise-to-corporate ratio that signals the operator's reliance on independent owners) in the business services sector, headquartered in MO. The 2024 FDD lists a total initial investment between $32K and $139K, with the 341% low-to-high spread driven mainly by site size, market, and how extensive the buildout runs. This figure includes the franchise fee of $3K, equipment, leasehold improvements, and initial working capital through the ramp-up period.

Royalty payments here are set at 30.5% of gross sales. H&R Block does provide Item 19 financial performance data -- a voluntary disclosure that most U.S. franchisors (roughly two-thirds) skip. The reported average gross revenue per location is $150K, which works out to about $46K in annual royalty for a typical unit. Revenue is not profit, actual franchisee take-home depends on rent, labor, cost of goods, and local demand.

H&R Block's footprint shrank over the past year, down 1.1% with 200 closures on the record. Do not treat contraction as automatically disqualifying, but do dig in: saturation, thin unit profitability, disputes with the franchisor, and planned pruning all produce the same headline number. Item 20 contacts can tell you which one this is.