First Intuit, now Block? The Internal Revenue Service says a glitch in which it called a "limited number of software company products" affected about 660,000 returns that claimed educational credits. The problem could delay refunds by as much as six weeks. And while the IRS did not identify which software was involved, H&R Block has been informing customers about problems with Form 8863.

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A federal court has refused to grant a preliminary injunction that would halt airing of some Intuit television ads. The decision was issued by the U.S. District Court for Western Missouri regarding the action filed by H&R Block. The tax services chain alleged unlawful misuse of the H&R Block brand and trademark along with unfair disparagement of its tax professionals in TurboTax ads.

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The write off of impaired goodwill for a subsidiary coupled with a charge that reduced its deferred tax asset pushed educational specialist SmartPros to a loss of $1.9 million for the year ended December 31. That compared to net income of $154,125 for 2011. Meanwhile, revenue for the recently ended year dropped to $15.9 million, down 6.4 percent from nearly $17 million for the prior year. Read more...