A Detroit, Mich.-based tax preparer, Matthew Bender, has been convicted of one county of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service and of nine counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns. Bender failed to report more than $500,000 in fees he earned for preparing at least 3,000 returns between 2006 and 2011.

An Acworth, Ga.-area tax preparer, whose brother has already been kicked out of the business, has agreed to stop preparing tax returns for others. Andrew R. Heath agreed this month to a civil injunction order barring from the business as brother Larry J. Heath had done earlier. The two were alleged to have cost the United States more than $108 million in lost tax revenue.

Revenue from financial products turned sharply upward in the early part of tax season, JTH Holding, parent of Liberty Tax Service, said in reporting its financial results for third quarter ended January 31. JTH said net income rose about almost two and a half times while revenue was up 8.3 percent over last year's corresponding period.

Do-it-yourself taxpayers continued to feed the growth in the number of tax returns for the current tax season. However, the market is catching up with the backlog created by the January 31 site and the total number of returns filed through March 7 is only one-tenth of a percent ahead of the totals for 2013 through March 8.