The delayed tax season left H&R Block all dressed up with no place to go for the third quarter ended January 31 in terms of financial results. With only one day of filing reflected in the quarterly report, the company reported a steep rise in its loss and a sharp drop in revenue, compared to last year's corresponding quarter. During this week's earnings webcast, CEO Bill Cobb said that $277 million in revenue would shift to the current quarter.

The United States has asked a federal court that Melissa Alvarez, a Texas tax preparer, be prohibited from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The Department of Justice alleges that of the tax returns examined that were prepared by Alvarez and her three companies, 97 percent had refunds that were inflated Alvarez's actions.

The Internal Revenue Service, which issued few numbers about tax season results in 2013 until the season ended, has been publishing them regularly this year. And for the season through February 21, the number of returns processed and the amount of refunds issue continue to show double-digit gains over the prior year.

Intuit has 550 CPAs participating in its TurboTax CPA Select program, the company said in a recent earnings webcast. Begun last year, the program is in what CEO Brad Smith this week called a “full live beta” test. Although he did not quantify results during the earnings presentation, Smith said, “We like the early results of this experiment.”