Three Florida preparers, alleged to have cost the federal government millions in lost taxes, have been barred from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The three are accused of fabricating or exaggerating deductions and tax credits clients were not eligible to take.

Avalara, which markets cloud-based products for handling indirect taxes, has introduced new versions of CertCapture and CertExpress, its applications for handling exemption certificates. CertCapture is utitilized by a wide variety of sellers to collect, validate and renew store buyers' certificates.

Xero has introduced machine learning automation into its cloud-based financial software. The company says that the new technology means that the software will learn to perform such tasks as recording invoices against the proper account without business owners having to worry about making a mistake.