The Internal Revenue Service should work with tax software companies to dramatically expand self-service capabilities for taxpayers. In its annual report to Congress this month, the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee recommended the IRS expand a pilot program that enabled taxpayers to determine their refund status within tax software to include an array of services.

Xero has hired Sankar Narayan as its CFO effective in October. He will move into the position vacation when Douglas Jeffries resigned the position in February after eight weeks on the job. Narayan joins the low-cost cloud accounting software manufactuer after serving as CFO of Virgin Australia for four years.

A recent study by Bloomberg BNA shows a sharp drop in the number of companies outsourcing payroll over the last four years. Only 12 percent of respondents in a survey outsourced some or all of their payroll services, down from 56 percent in 2012.