Publicity about store operators accused of tax return fraud hurt Liberty Tax during the last fiscal year. These problems caused Liberty to acquire more than 100 franchised stores and also dented territory sales, CEO John Hewitt said during this week's webcast for earnings for the second quarter ended October 30.

Sage's low-end cloud accounting software, Sage One, has improved performance around the world. However, it continues to struggle in the market in the United States. Still in reporting its fiscal 206 results, the company expressed confidence that the product's reputation has been improving as measured by Net Promoter Scores.

Intuit intends to use its large amount of consumer data in TurboTax to help taxpayers improve their experience with financial services. Dan Wernikoff, the EVP who runs the software company's Consumer Tax Group, said Intuit will have a program in place during 2017.