Liberty Tax and TaxAct grew the number of returns they received or processed faster than the rate over overall return growth. The two joined Intuit in that category as only H&R Block this year grew at a slower rate than the number of returns efiled with the Internal Revenue Service through April 18.

Thomson Reuters would probably like to clone its Tax and Accounting business. That unit this week turned in what CEO James Smith called "an exceptional" quarter for the period ended March 31 with tax and accounting leading all of the company's operations in improvements to the bottom line and revenue.

Intuit was a winner in this year's consumer tax competition. With the Internal Revenue Service reporting that self-prepared returns were up by 6.5 percent over the 2013 tax season, Intuit said the number of TurboTax efiled returns that were accepted this year were up by 9 percent.