“We exceeded the high end of our guidance on all measures,” CEO John Clendening said in a recent earnings webcast.

The tax software business registered revenue of $113.9 million in the first quarter, a rise of 14.2 percent from $99.7 million a year earlier. The operation’s contribution margin of $58.8 million was 11 percent above the $53.1 million recorded in last year’s corresponding period. 

Most tax software revenue is from the consumer business, which had first-quarter sales of $101.9 million, up 15 percent from $88.2 million a year earlier. Professional tax preparation revenue of slightly less than $12 million for the most recently ended period was 4 percent higher than $11.5 million a year earlier.

Company results, which include the H.D. Vest business, were strong with Blucora reporting net income of $45.4 million for the recently ended quarter, an increase of 45 percent from $30.5 million a year ago. First-quarter revenue of slightly less than $206 million was 12.9-percent higher than the $182.4 million in last year’s corresponding period.

H.D. Vest produced $92.1 million in revenue, up 11.4 percent from $82.7 million a year earlier. The operating margin for the most recently reported quarter was $13.1 million, an increase of 10 percent from $11.9 million a year earlier.

There were 3.8 million returns efiled via TaxAct software, for the 2018 tax season, a drop of 12 percent from 4.3 million for the 2017 tax season. 

Professionals efiled $1.76 million returns during the recently completed season, a 3-percent rise from $1.72 million last year.  Professionals purchased TaxAct units for tax season. 2018, a decline of 2 percent from 20,964 for 2017. That translated into a rise of 5 percent in efiles per unit to 85.6 from 81.9.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind