When you work for yourself, tax filing gets more complicated. You are not just reporting W-2 income — you are tracking expenses, calculating self-employment tax, managing quarterly payments, and making sure every deductible business cost gets claimed. TurboTax Self-Employed and H&R Block Self-Employed are the two most popular options for freelancers and small business owners. This article breaks down how they compare so you can pick the right one.
This content is for educational purposes only and is not tax or legal advice. Consult a licensed tax professional for guidance specific to your situation.
What Self-Employed Filers Actually Need from Tax Software
Before comparing the two products, it helps to understand what self-employed tax filing actually requires. Whether you drive for a rideshare app, freelance as a designer, run an Etsy shop, or operate a small service business, your return will likely include:
- Schedule C: Where you report business income and deductible expenses
- Self-employment tax calculation: You pay both the employee and employer portions of Social Security and Medicare taxes
- Home office deduction: If you use part of your home exclusively for business
- Mileage or vehicle expense tracking: For business driving
- Quarterly estimated tax payments: The IRS expects you to pay taxes throughout the year, not just at filing time
- Health insurance deduction: Self-employed individuals may deduct premiums paid for themselves and their families
- Retirement contributions: SEP-IRA and Solo 401(k) contributions are deductible and can significantly reduce taxable income
Both TurboTax Self-Employed and H&R Block Self-Employed handle all of these. The differences come down to user experience, pricing, and platform integrations.
File your taxes with TurboTax Self-Employed — built for freelancers, gig workers, and sole proprietors.
Schedule C and Business Expense Coverage
TurboTax Self-Employed
TurboTax Self-Employed walks you through Schedule C with a dedicated interview that asks about your industry, income sources, and expense categories. The interface helps you identify expenses you might not have thought of, organized by category — advertising, home office, supplies, travel, and more. The deduction finder actively prompts you to consider expenses relevant to your type of work.
One standout feature is TurboTax’s industry-specific expense guidance. If you indicate you are a rideshare driver, for example, the software flags phone expenses, car expenses, and related deductions. If you say you are a real estate agent, it surfaces different relevant categories.
H&R Block Self-Employed
H&R Block Self-Employed also handles Schedule C competently and guides users through the same core areas. Its interface is similarly interview-driven and prompts for common self-employment deductions. H&R Block’s approach is slightly less granular in its industry-specific prompting, but the coverage of Schedule C line items is thorough.
H&R Block also has a built-in deduction finder that flags common missed deductions, though TurboTax’s version tends to go deeper with categorized industry prompts.
Self-Employment Tax Calculation
Both platforms calculate Schedule SE automatically once you have entered your net self-employment income. This includes the deductible half of self-employment tax that you can claim on your Form 1040. Neither platform requires you to understand the underlying math — it is handled in the background. This is standard across all major tax software, so it is not a differentiator.
Home Office Deduction
Both TurboTax and H&R Block support both methods of calculating the home office deduction: the simplified method (a flat rate per square foot of dedicated workspace, check IRS guidance for the current rate) and the regular method (actual expenses based on the percentage of your home used for business).
TurboTax’s home office section walks through both options and helps you calculate which produces a larger deduction. H&R Block does the same. This is an important deduction for many self-employed filers, and both platforms handle it well.
Mileage and Vehicle Expense Tracking
Both platforms support mileage deduction using the IRS standard mileage rate (check IRS.gov for the current rate for 2026) or actual vehicle expenses. Neither platform tracks your mileage throughout the year within the tax software itself — that happens in a separate mileage log or app. At tax time, you enter your totals.
TurboTax has a partnership with its QuickBooks Self-Employed product (now integrated into QuickBooks Solopreneur) that allows automatic mileage import if you tracked throughout the year using that app. This is a meaningful convenience for users already in the QuickBooks ecosystem.
H&R Block does not have an equivalent native mileage tracking integration, though you can import data from third-party apps or enter totals manually.
Importing from Gig Platforms: Uber, Lyft, Etsy, Shopify
For gig economy workers, importing income and expense data directly from platforms saves significant time and reduces errors.
TurboTax Integrations
TurboTax Self-Employed supports direct import from a range of gig and e-commerce platforms. Rideshare drivers can import income data directly from Uber and Lyft. Etsy and Shopify sellers can import their sales data. These integrations pull in 1099-K data and in some cases expense summaries as well.
H&R Block Integrations
H&R Block Self-Employed also offers integrations with major platforms, though the breadth of direct connections has historically been slightly narrower than TurboTax. It supports W-2 and 1099 imports from many financial institutions and can import from some gig platforms. Check H&R Block’s current integration list for 2026, as these expand each year.
For sellers with complex multi-platform operations, TurboTax’s integration ecosystem tends to have an edge.
Or try H&R Block Self-Employed — a solid option with strong core self-employment features.
Receipt Scanning
TurboTax Self-Employed includes a receipt scanning feature through its mobile app that lets you photograph receipts throughout the year, categorize them, and have the totals available at tax time. This is part of the QuickBooks Self-Employed integration and is most useful if you use it consistently throughout the year rather than only at tax time.
H&R Block’s mobile app supports document capture but does not have an equivalent year-round receipt management feature built into the tax product. If receipt capture is important to you, TurboTax has a clear advantage here.
Quarterly Estimated Tax Support
Both platforms help self-employed filers estimate and calculate quarterly tax payments (Form 1040-ES). TurboTax has historically done a better job of surfacing this as a proactive feature — after you file, it prompts you about next year’s quarterly payments and can help you calculate them based on your current year results.
H&R Block addresses quarterly estimates as well, though the guidance and workflow around this feature is less prominent in the product experience.
Pricing Comparison
Pricing for tax software changes each year. As of 2026, you should check each company’s website for current pricing, but here is what you can generally expect:
- TurboTax Self-Employed is typically one of the more expensive individual tax software options on the market. The federal filing fee is higher than most competitors, and state filing is an additional cost.
- H&R Block Self-Employed is generally priced lower than TurboTax for equivalent functionality. The self-employed tier has historically offered similar features at a meaningfully lower price point.
If price is your primary concern and your return is not especially complex, H&R Block Self-Employed tends to offer better value. If you are already in the TurboTax or QuickBooks ecosystem and value the integrations and year-round tools, TurboTax may be worth the premium.
Who Wins for Freelancers vs Small Business Owners
Freelancers and Gig Workers
For freelancers with a single line of work, moderately straightforward expenses, and income from one or two platforms, both products work well. TurboTax edges ahead for gig workers with rideshare or e-commerce income due to its platform integrations and the QuickBooks mileage/receipt tools. H&R Block is the better value pick if you are comfortable entering your figures manually and do not need those integrations.
Small Business Owners
Sole proprietors with more complex operations — multiple income streams, significant inventory, employees, or S-corp elections — may find both self-employed personal editions limiting. TurboTax Business and H&R Block Business are separate products designed for business entity returns (S-corps, partnerships, C-corps). If you have elected S-corp status or operate as a partnership, you will need those products, not the self-employed personal editions covered here.
For sole proprietors filing Schedule C with substantial but manageable complexity, TurboTax Self-Employed’s depth of guidance is the stronger pick. For those who are comfortable with the process and want to save money, H&R Block Self-Employed delivers the core functionality at a lower cost.
Final Recommendation
TurboTax Self-Employed is the better product for most self-employed filers who want comprehensive guidance, platform integrations, and year-round tools. H&R Block Self-Employed is the smarter choice if you want to pay less and are confident in your ability to navigate self-employment taxes without as much hand-holding.
Start with TurboTax if you want the most thorough experience: File your taxes with TurboTax Self-Employed
Or compare at H&R Block: Try H&R Block Self-Employed