A tax preparer who is a former Internal Revenue Service employee has been indicted for allegedly filing false claims for $3.4 millions in tax refunds. Clive Henry of Jamaica, N.Y., faces a 20-count indictment for allegedly defrauding the United States government, along with Rodney Chestnut, of Middle Island, N.Y., a retired New York City Department of Corrections officer; and Nafeesah Hines, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration employee, also of Jamaica, N.Y.

Xero has taken the first steps in bringing its low-cost accounting and payroll systems together. It has integrated them for California, Florida and Texas and says integration for the United Kingdom and New Zealand will occur in the next three months with the rest of the United States to follow during the year.

Intuit's change to standard features of its TurboTax Basic program has led to complaints it effectively raised prices for many of its users. One major change is taxpayers with Schedule A now must use the higher-priced TurboTax Premier. And competitor H&R Block is trying to capitalize on what it hopes is the anger of TurboTax customers.