The number of federal desktop units sold dropped to 5.1 million this year, compared to 5.3 million in the same period in the 2010 tax season. Intuit said it sold 10.3 million online federal units this year to date, a 14-percent rise compared to just over 9 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, the number of Turbo Tax units sold under the Free Fie alliance was 844,000, down 8 percent from 914,000. That brought the total TurboTax units for 2010 to 16.2 million, up from 5.2 million.

Filing accelerated in from February 13 through March 12, continuing the trend for filings to make up for the delay by the Internal Revenue Service in accepting some kinds of returns. For that period, online units were up by 30 percent over a year earlier and total TurboTax units rise by 23 percent.