Clowns deducting travel expenses? Scrap yard owners deducting cat food? How about a deduction for your hot tub as a medical expense? Every year, taxpayers test the limits of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Now, H&R Block is giving taxpayers a new way to test their savvy of the unique and obscure in the tax code, win prizes along the way and maybe deduct a few extra bucks that they may never have expected.

The company has introduced the Deduct-a-Buck online game hosted by fictional character Max Refund. This dynamic, tongue-in-cheek game, with the look and feel of a 70's television quiz show, is located at www.deductabuck.com and will run through April 17, 2006. Prizes include Blockbuster(R) gift cards, free TaxCut Online Premium tax programs, GameStop(R) gift cards and a Dell(R) XPS Notebook Computer Grand Prize.

The www.deductabuck.com site from H&R Block provides not only a look at some of the strangest deductions on record, but also connects people to the more serious side of the tax season -- the need for real advice and sound tax preparation, because not all deduction hits and misses are laughing matters. In fact, the need for advice is greater than ever before as a wide range of commonly missed deductions potentially impact the bottom-line for taxpayers who don't know their options and miss deduction opportunities.

Nationwide, for example, 4.1 million taxpayers miss taking education credits and deductions, and 7.3 million taxpayers miss claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit, which can put as much as $4,400 into eligible taxpayers' pockets. For more information, visit www.taxcut.com or www.hrblock.com , file early and make sure you're taking advantage of every eligible deduction - no matter how wacky they may seem. Or visit one of the more than 11,000 retail offices nationwide for advice.

After 50 years and more than 400 million tax returns, H&R Block tax professionals have seen and heard it all ... and then some. Between its 70,000 tax professionals and its array of TaxCut Online and TaxCut Software-based tax preparation products, H&R Block claimed more than $29 billion in deductions and credits for its clients last year. Yet, every year Block sees more than its share of taxpayers' "creative" efforts to move the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) acceptance needle.
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