A federal court in Illinois has permanently barred two individuals and four companies for operating an alleged scheme to help high-income individuals avoid paying income taxes by funneling money through employee benefit plans. However, the plan was designed to provide tax-free or tax-deferred income for businesses that made from $239 million to more than $300 million in contributions to it.

Petz Enterprises has hired Reynold F. Sbrilli to the new position of chief strategy officer for the Tracy, Calif.-based tax software company. Sbrilli was most recently EVP of Commercial Bank Assurance Asia-Pacific for HSBC and has more than 25 years of executive-level experience in the financial services industry, including 21 years at HSBC.

H&R Block says the number of returns its stores have prepared grew by 6.7 percent through February 15, over returns filed for the same period a year ago. That came as the industry trend of rapidly increasing online filing of income tax returns continued. While retail returns rose by 2.1 percent for the reported period, digital returns increased by 16.7 percent.

TaxAct is expected to have revenue of $36 million to $38 million when its new owner, InfoSpace, reports results for its first quarter ending March 31. That represents two months of revenue, since InfoSpace took ownership of the tax preparation software company. However, InfoSpace executives declined to get specific about performance until they have more time with the new business.