This Doesn't Inspire a Lot of Confidence

This time of year is huge for famed tax preparation company H & R Block as thousands of harried wage earners allow the company to prepare their taxes. This news release from H & R Block might give them a brief pause:

As part of its ongoing work to remediate control weaknesses in its corporate tax function, the company said that it will restate its results for fiscal years 2005 and 2004, as well as previously reported quarterly results for fiscal 2006. The restatement pertains principally to errors in determining the company’s state effective income tax rate, resulting in a cumulative understatement of its state income tax liability of approximately $32 million as of April 30, 2005. The company estimates that the restatement will result in a 7-cent decrease in earnings per share in fiscal 2005 and a 2-cent decrease in earnings per share in fiscal 2004.

Granted, the company's return is a lot bigger than mine and probably a lot easier to screw up, but I think I'll just go ahead and keep preparing my own returns.