The comments about Axcess are the most specific the company has made about the product line's performance. "It has allowed us to pick up more share among the top 10 accounting firms in North America," McKinstry said. She did not specify the size of that increase or provide any information on the number of users. The other major benefit executives cited was the ability to cross sell products, once a customer has purchased an Axcess product.

The company also described its desktop-based ProSystem fx as performing well and said overall North America is driving revenue growth.

Net profit was roughly $460 million with the bottom line cut by a sharp rise in income tax expense. For the most recently ended year, that figure was about $129 million, an increase of 213 percent from the prior year's tax expense. Wolters Kluwer received a big boost from the strength of the American dollar. Revenue was approximately $4.8 billion in 2015, up 15 percent; an increase of 3 percent inconstant currencies.

Tax & Accounting posted about $1.2 billion in revenue last year; up 14 percent over 2014 and 3 percent each for constant currencies and organic growth. Operating profit was about $338 million last year—an increase of 19 percent; 7 percent in constant currencies; 8 percent organically.

Tax & Accounting is one of four divisions remaining in a realignment of Wolters Kluwer's reporting structure. It is the second-largest division after Legal & Regulatory. The difference between the division and its composition last year is the transfer of audit products to Tax & Accounting. The company said organic growth would have been the same even without the addition of that operation.