It's Tax time!

Tax Time We are in the beginning of February and also in the mid of the busy tax filling. Traditionally we just go to the regional library and grab the 1040 form to fill up the tax form manually (yup, I've done it before) or for the more complicated cases bring all the documents to accountant in order to save tax. However now a days with the advancing technology we have the choice of filing the tax with easy to use software or even filing the tax online thur the Internet.

Today let's take a look at some of the companies offering electronic tax filling.

• Intuit Inc. (INTU): the Mountain View, CA based software firm makes popular TurboTax for tax preparation, QuickBook for bookkeeping and Quicken for financial management. The company also offers online version of TurboTax for online tax filing. For the season ending January 7, the firm has sold total of 1.6 million units of TurboTax, a decline of 2% compare to prior year. However the company is bullish for this year as IRS expects individual tax filing to increase 1.5 million and the firm expects to attract new customers. The stock is currently trading at $52.23 per share and P/E ratio of 25.39. Intuit is expected to file earning on February 16.
• H&R Block Inc. (HRB): the Kansas City, MO based firm offers income tax preparation software as well as branch offices for face to face income tax service. The company has generated revenue of $4.61 billion with quarterly revenue growth of 11.6% compare to Intuit's revenue of $2.09 billion and 20% quarterly revenue growth. However the stock is currently trading at a discount of lower P/E ratio of 13.14 at $23.83 per share, near the 52 week low, a more attractive deal than the competitor.
• Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (JTX): the Parsippany, NJ based firm provides income tax preparation service thru its 4,871 franchised office and 613 company-owned offices nationwide. The income tax preparation is done thru ProFiler, the company's income preparation tax software. The company generated far less revenue of 231 million than its competitor H&R blocks yet has higher operation margin of 37%, compare to 21% of H&R block. The stock is trading at higher P/E ratio of 19.86 or $25.3 per share, about 10% more than the same time last year.