The slow start to tax season is probably due to seasonality, Intuit CEO Brad Smith said recently. Smith  made the comments at the recent Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. He also said that the season is likely to show roughly 1 percent growth in returns filed, also a historical trend.

For the first time in the 2017 tax season, the size of the average tax refund increased over the prior year. The average refund for the period ending February 17 was .3 percent higher than the period ending Feb. 19, 2016. And while the number of returns filed still lag the prior season, the gap narrowed substantially.

Blucora, which owns H.D. Vest and TaxAct, reported a $65.2 million loss for the year ended December 31, up from a loss of $38.9 million in 2015. But that loss reflected the company's transformation in selling off its Infospace and Monoprice businesses and a full year of its ownership of H.D. Vest.