Liberty Tax has named Laura Contreras Rowe as COO of its SiempreTax+ business, which is designed to provide tax preparation and other services to the Hispanic market. While Liberty, which operates a franchised store chain for tax preparation, announced her hiring in the last week, Contreras Rowe has been on the job since August.

A Pembroke Pines, Florida, couple has pleaded guilty to using stolen identities to file more than 700 returns for tax years 2009 through 2011. Walther Wilson Godfrey, 37 and Rhonda Peggy Gittens, 35, were accused obtaining IDs of living and deceased individuals to request more than $1.9 million in refunds. They also possessed devices for creating ID materials.

Australia-based software vendor Reckon has acquired SmartVault, which markets document management applications. Reckon, once Intuit's QuickBooks distributor for its home country, markets online accounting packages in other nations and also the Virtual Cabinet document management system in the United States.