TaxAct, the tax preparation business of Blucora, had a 13-percent rise in revenue for 2015. That came as the company's proforma revenue was up 7 percent over 2014 with the company's purchase of HD Vest on December 31, Blucora said during a recent earnings webcast.

Liberty Tax Service says it is cooperating with Maryland, which has stopped accepting electronically filed state tax returns from 23 Liberty offices in that state. Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot took the action because of what it said was a high level of suspicious returns being filed from those offices. The action does not affect electronically filed federal returns or any returns filed on paper.

NationTax Services, which operates stores in four Southern states, has been ordered to close. A federal court in Orlando, Fla., has told owner Jason Stinson to shutter his stores immediately, finding that they had engaged in a pattern of preparing and filing false tax returns.

A Lake Worth, Fla., man who was once part of the former LBS tax chain accused of systematically preparing phony returns, has been barred from preparing federal tax returns. Wilfrid Antoine agreed to a preliminary injunction to shutter his seven stores in Florida and to disgorge $100,000 after being accused of continuing the same business practices followed by LBS in targeting low-income customers.