H&R Block used an investor's day this week  to come out with all guns blazing at the rest of the tax preparation market, especially Intuit. Executives said that in the next tax season the company would offer free RACs, expand its Emerald Card program by 1 million and challenged Intuit's assumption that digital tax preparation is outstripping assisted preparation.

A taxpayer who blamed TurboTax for failing to pick up an error in calculation has defeated the Internal Revenue Service in tax court. Kurt Olsen, a patent attorney in the Department of Energy, won against the IRS in its attempt to assess an accuracy-related penalty for understating the amount of taxes owed by $9,297. The tax court cited unique facts in the case in ruling that Olsen and his wife were not liable for the $1,859 penalty for tax year 2007. The ruling was a summary opinion, which cannot be treated as a precedent in other cases.