Intuit Vs. H&R Block: Who will Win 2012 Tax Season Battle?

November 28, 2011 6:43 AM EST

Intuit Inc.'s (NASDAQ: INTU) TurboTax Desktop software is now available, as expected by Jefferies. The brokerage said prices and stock-keeping units of Intuit software are unchanged from last year.

"Intuit remains the premium priced vendor of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) software, average 40 percent higher than H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) for equivalent Basic, Deluxe and Premium stock keeping units (SKU), consistent with the 2011 season," said Ross MacMillan, an analyst at Jefferies.

However, with online products comprising a majority of units sold, MacMillan awaits the release of these products next week to better understand 2012 pricing dynamics.

H&R Block's shrink-wrapped tax software was made available through its Web site from last week. Pricing of H&R Block's tax software was broadly consistent year-over-year, excluding the Basic State SKU, which is up 8 percent year-over-year.

Pricing and product stock-keeping units of Intuit's TurboTax Desktop software are consistent year-over-year, with the company offering its Basic solution for $29.95, Deluxe for $59.95, Premier for $89.95, Home & Business for $99.95 and Business $129.95 (the State SKU and Federal/ State e-filing dynamics/ pricing are also unchanged year-over-year).

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MacMillan said pricing of H&R Block's shrink-wrapped tax software is broadly consistent with the beginning of the 2011 tax season, though he noted that the price of the Basic State SKU is up 8 percent year over year from $36.95 last season (beginning and end) to $39.95.

Consistent with last year, Intuit remains the premium priced vendor of DIY tax software versus H&R Block: Intuit's Basic SKU is priced 50 percent higher than H&R Block's Basic SKU, Intuit's Deluxe product is priced 33 percent higher than H&R Block's Deluxe SKU, and Intuit's Premier product is priced 38 percent higher than H&R Block's premium product.

Despite Intuit's higher prices, MacMillan noted that Intuit sold 6 million desktop software units during the 2011 tax season versus H&R Block's 2 million software units sold.

Since Online product comprises more than 60 percent of the product sold during the season, MacMillan awaits the release of Online pricing data (H&R Block on Nov. 30; Intuit on Dec. 1 to better understand 2012 tax season pricing dynamics.

Intuit stock closed Friday's regular trading down 0.04 percent at $49.27 on the NASDAQ Stock Market, while shares of H&R Block closed down 1.03 percent at $14.41 on the NYSE.

This article is copyrighted by International Business Times, the business news leader