Anyone not yet enrolled to offer refund anticipation loans for the 2011 season will find this year's options very limited. With Chase having dropped out earlier this year and Republic Bank reporting it will have only a third of the funds it offered last year, another avenue has disappeared as River City Bank has closed its enrollment.

With overall Thomson Reuters revenue flat for the third quarter ended September 30, the company's Tax & Accounting business reported relatively strong results with operating profits and revenue each up 8 percent for the most recently ended period, although operating margins remained unchanged at 16 percent. And executives said in yesterday's earnings conference call that the business is expected to get better.

Republic Bank, one of the few financial institutions remaining in the refund loan business, expects that in the upcoming tax season it will utilize as little as one third of the amount it borrowed to support its RAL business in the 2010 season. The statement was made in the quarterly SEC filing of the parent, Republic Bancorp. Since Republic borrowed just over $1 billion last year, that suggests its borrowings could drop to about $333 million for the first quarter of 2011. With the Santa Barbara Tax Products Group now apparently unlikely to offer refund loans, the will be little money to meet expected demand. 

CCH is launching into the eBook world by making its most popular publications available on a variety of computing devices. And customers will be able to order the products the same way with electronic publications costing the same as the print originals. Initially available for the iPod and iPad and for personal computers and Macs, the publications will be also be available for Amazon’s Kindle, according to Sue Nolan, CCH director of project management and marketing, who said CCH and Amazon are in negotiations.