VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. - The tax season has had its share of challenges so far, but Liberty Tax Service says the number of returns filed through February 15 with its stores is up 14.2 percent and revenue is up 15.1 percent over the same period a year earlier. Same store sales were up 7.4 percent. Same store sales are for those units that were open more than a year.

In this month's earnings report, CEO Brad Smith said that until February filings lagged for the same reasons cited by Hewitt. However, Smith said the pace had accelerated starting at the beginning of the month.

Later last week, Intuit reported 1-percent growth in TurboTax units through February 12. That was a combination of a 6-percent increase in the sale of TurboTax Online units coupled with a 5-percent decrease in desktop unit sales. However, from February 1 through 12, TurboTax Online units were up 16 percent over the same period last year and total federal units were up 11 percent for the period.