Guess Who Messed Up Their Own Taxes By $32 Million

Actually, I think that makes sense since they would be most exposed to being chipped away at by software. That is, Block tends to be used by people who just wanted to do away with the bother of doing a return themselves and not those looking for true tax consulting and planning (which would be difficult to deliver with a largely part year employee pool anyway ). And their attempts to move upmarket never did appear, to me, to get any significant traction. As software became more available and more user friendly and going to Block became more and more about "cross selling opportunities" that had to be dodged, I suspect a number of those people decided it was less frustrating to do their own than having to dodge all of the sales pitches. And the "rabid refund" crowd has likely now peaked, so their growth in that area no longer could offset losses to computer software. There is a reason they acquired McGladrey and other interests--I think they saw the writing on the wall.

-- Ed Zollars, CPA Phoenix, Arizona