With the number of returns efiled by professional preparers still lagging the 2015 tax season, those efiled by D-I-Yers accelerated growth over the prior year. The number of returns filed by the pros through March 11 were down by 2.5 percent, the same as in the tax statistics through March 4. But self-prepared efilings moved up by 4.l percent from the corresponding period ended March 13, 2015.

The number of tax returns received by the Internal Revenue Service was higher for the week ended through March 4, compared to the season through March 6 a year ago. It was barely higher as the total was .1 percent more than in the corresponding period in 2015. But it was the first time that total returns received topped the 2015 figures out of the five weekly reports issued by the IRS during this tax season.

H&R Block executives would not directly comment about the impact of the company's $1,000 a day to 1,000 people in the early part of the tax season. Certainly, results for the company's showing returns off by 6.1 percent for Block's fiscal year to date for the period ending February 28 was not what it had hoped.