Sage has introduced a Global Accountant Partner Program. The tiered program is part of last fall's new Global Partner Program that is designed to support its software applications. It is available immediately for programs sold worldwide: Sage Impact, Live, One and X3, and will be rolled out for all products in October.

The number of tax returns received for the 2016 tax season through March 25 fell by .9 percent from year-earlier figures. And for the season through that period, the number of returns efiled by paid preparers dropped 3.1 percent behind the same period in 2015 while the rate of self-prepared efiled returns also fell, according to the most recent weekly report by the Internal Revenue Service.

After the tax season started with returns at lower levels than in 2015, observers expected results would improve. But total returns remained off from the beginning and then registered only a tiny increase for the period ended March 11. Then for the season through March 18, total returns dropped slightly as did the percentage efiled by paid preparers.