Speaking at Credit Suisse Technology in Scottsdale, Ariz., on the same day, Brad Smith, Intuit's CEO, gave more detail about the competition with the tax stores. While in most years the number of customers gained from tax stores equals those lost to the chains, things were different in the last tax season.
"Last year was the first year we took more people from tax stores than we lost to the tax stores," Smith said. "It’s usually pretty even."
Smith also discussed the expected impact of TurboTax for Online Banking. That system enables users to download data from their online bank accountants and to download the W-2 and quickly finish the preparation of the return.
Banks are enthusiastic about the potential because, "98 percent of the time the consumer deposits that refund into the bank," Smith continued. He also said such customers are substantial more profitable for the banks.