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Project (3)
~ Third Party Transactions, H&R Block


Objective

For tax season 2023, a new law meant new tax obligations for individuals and businesses receiving payments via third-party settlement organizations (TPSO). The threshold for these platforms to send Form 1099-K significantly dropped from $20,000/200 transactions to $600/1 transaction. This change gave H&R Block the opportunity to position ourselves as an expert, go-to resource.

Users + Audience

  • Consumers: Any individual receiving income from digital platforms or TPSO (e.g., Venmo, Facebook Marketplace, eBay). Due to the lower threshold, most consumers would not be aware of the change and might be surprised to receive a 1099-K. 
  • Small Business Owners: Establishments that use TPSO who may or may not have previously qualified under the old regulations, but who will qualify this year with the lower threshold. Probably already aware of the rule but would need assistance navigating how it impacts next year’s taxes.

Use Cases

  • Filer’s receiving more than one Form 1099-K.
  • One Form 1099-k including multiple types of income.

Roles + Responsibilities

I led this project as the main designer, ideating early concepts, regularly presenting to product managers and leadership, participating in usability testing feedback collection, and delivering final assets for production. I collaborated cross-functionally with our content and product partners.

Functions

Required fields from the IRS form needed to display any current income types (i.e., known businesses, farms, or rentals). We needed a way to inform users that they needed to create a form if it did not exist within their account and to create a way to automatically redirect users to that income type for entering information.

User Flow

This user flow illustrates the path a user might take to complete filing their Form 1099-K.


Personas

For representation purposes, I used the following persona, Mateo, to demonstrate how a customer who is married and filing jointly might navigate the flow.

Research Findings

Moderated, in-person testing was conducted by the Research team for this flow. Ten people were matched to different scenarios using our QA environment. We made changes to certain verbiage and were able to identify gaps in the experience. Overall, the user response was positive and participants found the flow easy to navigate. Most importantly, the flow did not disrupt the tax experience and proved to be a seamless addition to the filing flow.