TurboTax wants Americans to stop dragging their feet
Intuit blames late start to season for lower outlook
Americans are apparently dragging their feet on tax filing this year.
A sluggish start to tax season undermined TurboTax owner Intuit’s earnings. The online filing software company warned Wednesday “tax season is forming more slowly than usual,” which will translate into a worsethan-expected performance for the fiscal second quarter ended Jan. 31.
The company lowered its outlook for quarterly revenue, operating income and earnings. In the long run, the company expects full-year earnings to achieve its targets.
“Data points to the tax category forming slowly for all prep methods,” Dan Wernikoff, executive vice president and general manager of Intuit’s TurboTax business, said in a statement. “We believe we have a strong and winning hand that combines innovation across the end-to-end experience, an effective go-tomarket campaign and great value for taxpayers. One thing we know about the tax business is that everyone needs to file by April 18. We are looking forward to a strong finish to the season.”
Revenue is now expected to range from $1.01 billion to $1.02 billion, down from a previous projection of $1.05 billion to $1.07 billion. Operating income is pro- jected at $15 million to $20 million, down from a previous prediction of $60 million to $70 million. And the company is now expected to barely eke out a profit for the quarter, with earnings of four to five cents per share, down from an earlier expectation of 12 to 15 cents.
The good news for Intuit is it still expects to meet its goals for the full year, suggesting that customer spending is simply shifting to the next fiscal quarter.
The company declined to comment beyond Wednesday’s statement.