"The majority of the benefits of tax reform to the ADP bottom line should flow through to shareholders," Rodriguez said. He also said the company is looking at "some modest increases" to charitable contributions and "increasing pay some of our people who are earning below $15 an hour" and for some increases to the pool available for merit pay.

No decisions have yet been made about possible dividends or share buybacks. However, Rodriguez said those actions would flow from the impact on the bottom line.

Net income for the most recently ended period was $467.5 million, down 8.5 percent from $510.9 million the year ago. Rodriguez said acquisitions had some impact on margins.

Revenue for the quarter was $3.2 billion, an increase of 8.3 percent from slightly less than $3 billion in last year's corresponding period. Payroll revenue of $2.4 billion was 5.6-percent higher than $2.31 billion a year earlier.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind