If you are a Schedule C freelancer deciding between TurboTax and H&R Block in July 2026, here is the short version: H&R Block Self-Employed Online is the cleaner pick for straightforward solo income, because it gives you a known, all-in price with live help built in. TurboTax Premium is the stronger choice if you are already living in the Intuit ecosystem, have investment or crypto activity layered on top of your freelance income, or want the most polished import experience. Neither is the right tool once you are running an S-corp with payroll — that is a different software category, and we will show you exactly where that line sits.
Who this comparison is for
This is written for the business-of-one: freelancers, consultants, and creators filing under their own SSN or a single-member LLC, with no employees and no payroll. If you have already elected S-corp status or you are issuing payroll, skip ahead to the section on where DIY software stops being the right tool.
What actually changed under OBBBA for freelancers filing in 2026
The 2026 filing season covers tax year 2025 returns, due April 15, 2026 for most individual filers. If your net self-employment earnings hit $400 or more, the IRS requires you to file and pay self-employment tax — 15.3%, split between 12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare — on top of ordinary income tax. For 2025, the Social Security portion applies up to $176,100 of net self-employment income; that ceiling rises to $184,500 for 2026.
Two OBBBA-driven reporting changes matter for how you use tax software this year, even though they do not change what income you owe tax on. First, the 1099-K threshold for third-party payment platforms reverted to the pre-pandemic-era rule of more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions. Second, the minimum threshold for 1099-NEC and certain 1099-MISC reporting rises to $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025, with inflation adjustments starting in 2027. Neither change means unreported income is untaxed — it is still reportable — it just means fewer forms will land in your inbox, so your software needs to handle income you track yourself, not only imported forms.
One more note worth flagging honestly: whether the qualified business income deduction changes beyond tax year 2025 is still unsettled as this is written, so treat any claim about its rate or permanence past 2025 as something to verify directly with the IRS or a CPA rather than something either company’s marketing page should be trusted to summarize for you.
TurboTax vs H&R Block: what each actually costs in 2026
Here is the pricing picture as of July 2026, pulled directly from each provider’s own pages. Treat any number without a state total next to it as incomplete — that is where freelancers get surprised at checkout.
| Product | Federal | State | Known all-in floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| H&R Block Self-Employed Online | $130 | $49 per state | $179 |
| H&R Block Self-Employed + Tax Pro Review | $225 | $49 per state | $274 |
| TurboTax Do It Yourself Premium | from $79 | additional, not listed | needs verification at checkout |
| TurboTax Expert Assist Premium | $209 | additional, not listed | needs verification at checkout |
| TurboTax Expert Assist Business, sole proprietor | $229 | additional, not listed | needs verification at checkout |
Notice the pattern: H&R Block publishes a complete federal-plus-state number on its own Self-Employed page, so you can calculate your real cost before you start. TurboTax’s official pages list a federal starting price and note state is additional without stating the figure. Confirm the actual state charge at checkout before comparing totals — don’t assume either number without checking the live price.
The three questions that actually decide this for you
Skip the marketing pages. Answer these in order and you will land on the right tool faster than any feature chart will get you there.
1. Are you filing a Schedule C return, or an entity return?
If you are a sole proprietor or single-member LLC reporting income and expenses on Schedule C attached to your personal Form 1040, both TurboTax Premium and H&R Block Self-Employed are built for you. If you have elected S-corp status and file Form 1120-S, this comparison does not apply — jump to the section on where DIY software stops working, below.
2. Do you have business expenses to deduct?
If your only self-employment activity is straightforward 1099-NEC income with no meaningful business expenses, H&R Block itself says its lower Deluxe tier can be the more cost-effective option — Self-Employed Online exists specifically to unlock deductions for things like home office costs, vehicle expenses, and supplies. If you are deducting anything beyond the basics, plan on the Self-Employed tier.
3. Do you want a professional to check your work, or just help while you self-file?
Both platforms sell “help” at two intensities. Self-Employed Online at $130 plus $49 per state includes AI Tax Assist and access to live tax pros while you prepare your own return. Stepping up to Self-Employed plus Tax Pro Review — $225 plus $49 per state — gets a professional to review and sign off before you file. TurboTax’s equivalent tiers are Expert Assist Premium at $209 federal for help while you self-prepare, with Full Service priced per form rather than as one flat number, which makes it harder to estimate in advance.
H&R Block Self-Employed Online: the honest breakdown
H&R Block’s Self-Employed tier is built around one job: getting a freelancer’s Schedule C filed with the deductions they are entitled to, at a price you know before you start. As of July 2026 it runs $130 federal plus $49 per state filed, with unlimited AI Tax Assist and live tax-pro help included at that price. It explicitly supports independent contractors, sole proprietors, and single-member LLCs reporting business income and expenses on Schedule C.
The honest limitation: if your only income is a handful of 1099-NEC forms and you have no business expenses to claim, H&R Block’s own guidance says its cheaper Deluxe tier may cover you — paying for Self-Employed when you don’t need its expense-tracking features leaves money on the table. And despite the transparent pricing, H&R Block was subject to a January 2025 FTC order requiring it to pay $7 million and change its advertising and downgrade practices for the 2025 and 2026 seasons — a reminder to read the upsell prompts carefully as you move through the product.
TurboTax Premium and Expert Assist Premium: the honest breakdown
TurboTax’s self-employed tier, Premium, starts at $79 federal for do-it-yourself filing and is the stronger choice if your finances go beyond a clean Schedule C — it explicitly handles 1099-NEC and 1099-K income alongside stock and crypto sales, rental property, ESPPs, and K-1s, with import tools like 1099 snap-and-autofill and Quick Employer Forms for issuing your own W-2s or 1099s. If you already use QuickBooks or other Intuit products, the ecosystem fit is real.
The honest limitation: the official pages checked list state filing as additional without stating the actual charge, so you cannot compare TurboTax’s true all-in cost to H&R Block’s $179 floor without checking your own state at checkout. TurboTax’s Free Edition also does not cover any self-employment or gig income at all, so most freelancers land in a paid tier by default. Intuit’s TurboTax marketing has its own regulatory history — the FTC issued a 2024 opinion finding deceptive “free” advertising practices — worth knowing even though it does not speak to current pricing accuracy.
Where DIY software stops working: S-corps and entity filings
If you have elected S-corp status, this comparison changes shape entirely. TurboTax sells explicit S-corp business-return support — Expert Assist around $639 and Full Service around $1,549, both with state filing additional — built around Form 1120-S. H&R Block’s Self-Employed Online, by contrast, is positioned around Schedule C and single-member LLC filing, not entity returns; don’t expect it to prepare an 1120-S. For calendar-year S-corps, the 2025 return was due March 16, 2026, and the reasonable-salary question that drives most of the tax savings from an S-corp election is exactly the kind of judgment call that belongs with a CPA or enrolled agent, not a software wizard.
Three solo scenarios, run through the actual math
Feature lists don’t tell you what you will pay. Here is what three real solo situations look like against July 2026 pricing.
Scenario 1: the $45,000 side-hustle designer
One state, straightforward 1099-NEC income, basic home-office and software deductions, no investments. H&R Block Self-Employed Online comes to a known $179 all-in, made up of $130 federal plus $49 state. TurboTax Do It Yourself Premium starts lower at $79 federal, but until you confirm the state charge at checkout, you don’t actually know whether it beats $179. If a known number matters more to you than a possibly-lower one, H&R Block wins this round on certainty alone.
Scenario 2: the $90,000 consultant who wants a safety net
Home office, mileage, one state, and a preference for a professional to check the return before filing. H&R Block’s Self-Employed plus Tax Pro Review comes to $274 all-in, made up of $225 plus $49 state. TurboTax’s comparable tier, Expert Assist Premium, is $209 federal with state additional and unverified — it would need to add less than $65 in state fees to beat H&R Block’s total. Worth checking your specific state price before deciding either way.
Scenario 3: the $180,000 agency-of-one weighing S-corp status
At this income level, the standard freelancer software comparison is arguably the wrong question. TurboTax’s S-corp Expert Assist product runs about $639 plus state, and Full Service runs about $1,549 plus state — a different cost category entirely from either company’s Schedule C products. H&R Block’s Self-Employed Online was not built to file an entity return. This is the income band where the conversation should shift from which software to whether an S-corp election plus a CPA relationship makes more sense for next year — a decision with real payroll and compliance costs that a solo owner should run past a CPA before electing.
Skip it if…
Skip H&R Block Self-Employed Online if you have no business expenses to deduct (the cheaper Deluxe tier may cover you), if you need entity-return support for an S-corp, or if your priority is the deepest investment-import tooling — TurboTax’s Premium tier is more explicit about handling heavy stock, crypto, and rental activity.
Skip TurboTax Premium or Expert Assist if a fully known price before you start matters more to you than TurboTax’s import polish, if you are not already in the Intuit or QuickBooks ecosystem, or if you want live help included at one clear price rather than confirming state fees at checkout.
Skip both — and go straight to a CPA or enrolled agent — if you have payroll, an existing S-corp election, multi-state business nexus questions, or a bookkeeping mess that needs cleanup before any software can file an accurate return.
Where tax software fits in your financial OS
Tax filing sits in the Foundation layer of a solo operator’s financial stack — the compliance layer that has to be right before anything in Flow or Growth matters. It pairs naturally with the bookkeeping system that feeds it: if you are tracking income and expenses in a tool like QuickBooks throughout the year, both TurboTax and H&R Block Self-Employed become faster and more accurate at filing time because the numbers are already organized, not reconstructed from bank statements in March. See our QuickBooks review for solo operators for how that piece connects.
If you are still working out how self-employment tax, quarterly estimates, and 1099 reporting fit together as a system rather than a once-a-year scramble, our self-employment tax guide for solo operators and our breakdown of 2026 1099-K rules for freelancers cover the pieces this article assumes you already understand. And if you want to see how tax software, banking, bookkeeping, and entity structure fit together as one coherent system rather than a pile of separate tools, start with the Solo Financial Stack Blueprint and the Solo Financial Operating System overview.
Bottom line
For a straightforward Schedule C freelancer in one state, H&R Block Self-Employed Online’s known $179 all-in price and included live help make it the safer default recommendation in 2026 — you know what you are paying before you start. TurboTax Premium earns its place for freelancers with investment, crypto, or rental complexity layered on top of self-employment income, or anyone already inside the Intuit ecosystem — just confirm your actual state fee before assuming it is the cheaper option. And once payroll, an S-corp election, or multi-state entity questions enter the picture, both companies want to sell you a bigger product; that is the moment to loop in a CPA or enrolled agent instead of a software wizard.
Estimated quarterly tax deadlines for 2026 are April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15, 2027 — worth marking now regardless of which software you land on.