Jill Cress on tax season
From H&R Block’s Jill Cress on AI, Digital Tax Prep & Rebuilding Brand Relevance · · Matt Britton
“150 million Americans must take an action by a certain date. And that's a really interesting dynamic. I've spent, you know, years working at financial services at Mastercard and Venmo. No one has to download the Venmo app, right? Every American who has to pay taxes has to do it by April 15th. So, it's a really fascinating sprint from January 1st to April 15th to reintroduce the brand into the category and to capture as much demand as we possibly can by bringing the work that we do grounded in our purpose, which is to provide help and inspire confidence around this really daunting and dare I say taxing moment for most Americans.”
On , Jill Cress, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer at BLOCK H & R INC, spoke about tax season during H&R Block’s Jill Cress on AI, Digital Tax Prep & Rebuilding Brand Relevance on Matt Britton.
About Jill Cress
Jill Cress, Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at H&R Block, discussed the company's approach to the 2025 tax season in a January 2025 podcast appearance. She described the period from January 1 to April 15 as a "sprint" to reintroduce the brand and capture demand, noting that 150 million Americans are required to file taxes by a specific date. Cress stated that the company's role is to "drive growth through bringing in more new customers and retaining our clients," and that marketing activities are evaluated based on whether they deliver business results. Cress highlighted Gen Z as an important audience, citing their financial optimism and status as one of the only large groups of new entrants into the tax category each year. She mentioned that H&R Block invests in social media platforms like TikTok and uses creators and influencers to produce platform-specific content. Cress also noted that changes to 1099-K reporting thresholds, which will decrease to $5,000, will affect people with side hustles or income from platforms like Venmo and Facebook Marketplace, and that the company is considering how to address this through content and storytelling.