Reinventing Taxes to Make Them Work for You with John Thompson

John Thompson is here today to talk about how the future is reinventing taxes. He discusses his diverse career path from technology and programming into finance, tax services, and nonprofit work, highlighting his long-term involvement with the Financial Health Network and their efforts to improve consumer financial health. He explains how H&R Block has evolved from serving primarily low- and middle-income clients to addressing more complex financial needs, and how automation and technology are changing tax preparation and accounting. Thompson emphasizes the importance of personal finance fundamentals, daily cash-flow systems, and awareness in managing income, debt, and budgeting amid rising costs and structural challenges like housing and healthcare.

We discuss...

John Thompson shares his career journey from technology and programming into finance, tax services, and nonprofit work.
He highlights his 25-year relationship with the Financial Health Network and their mission to improve consumer financial health.
John explains how research on bridging taxes and banking for underbanked populations inspired practical programs at H&R Block.
He describes the evolution of H&R Block from serving primarily low- and middle-income clients to addressing more complex financial needs.
Automation and technology in tax preparation are allowing professionals to focus on higher-value advisory services rather than data entry.
Thompson emphasizes the importance of daily personal finance systems to manage cash flow, spending, saving, and debt.
Challenges like inflation, housing affordability, student loans, and healthcare costs create structural barriers to financial health.
Thompson discusses how banks and financial institutions are experimenting with different models to serve both underbanked and community-focused customers.
He points out that for many simple tax filers, future trends may simplify filing to automated or postcard-level processes.
Thompson stresses the importance of taking timely financial actions at key moments, like tax season, raises, or job changes.
He highlights upcoming policy and product changes, such as the retirement savings match in 2027–2028 and child savings accounts starting in 2025.
Thompson underscores that financial resilience requires both structural solutions and disciplined personal money management.

Today's Panelists:

Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/reinventing-taxes-john-thompson-772

0:00.0	Welcome to the Money Tree Investing Podcast.
0:04.0	Stock market, wealth, personal finance, value stocks, invest in your life.
0:10.0	Hello, Smart Money Tree Podcasts listeners.
0:13.0	Welcome to this week's show.
0:14.0	My name's Kirk Chisholm and I'll be your host.
0:16.0	So today I'm joined with John Thompson.
0:18.0	How you doing today, John?
0:19.0	Doing well, thanks, Kirk.
0:20.0	Good. Well, glad you're having the show. Tell a bit about your background. I live in Kansas City. I'm actually in Prairie
0:25.6	Village, Kansas. I've worked three years at H&R Block over the course of my career, which started in technology.
0:32.0	As a programmer and database architect, I've gotten interested in the intersection of technology, finance,
0:39.6	and it's taken on me, you know, me on some pretty interesting journeys through private sector,
0:43.8	through startup, from nonprofit, and back again.
0:46.8	That's a lot of wide experiences. Which one was your favorite? I mean, because that's all
0:50.2	different. It's not something for everybody. You know, it's interesting, they all add up to,
0:56.0	hopefully some that's greater than the individual parts, but I think I did not expect to spend time
1:02.0	in nonprofit research and systems change when I started my career. And I would say the people,
1:10.4	the process, the creativity of that I really fell in love with
1:15.6	as I was thinking about it. And then as I was doing it, I just became addicted to it.
1:21.2	So tell me about the nonprofit stuff. What were you doing? What does that look like?
1:24.9	It was fascinating. I ended up working with an organization called the Financial Health Network, based in Chicago.
1:31.5	It used to be called the Center for Financial Services Innovation or CFSI.
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Reinventing Taxes to Make Them Work for You with John Thompson

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