KANSAS CITY, MO - (MARKETWIRE) - 03/07/13 - H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB), the world's largest consumer tax services provider, today released U.S. tax volume through Feb. 28 and fiscal 2013 third quarter earnings ended Jan. 31. As a result of significant tax legislation being passed shortly before the traditional start of the tax season and the resulting delay in opening the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) e-file system, the start of the 2013 U.S. tax season has been subject to an unprecedented delay that has caused changes in the timing of taxpayer filing patterns.
In a typical year, the IRS begins accepting tax returns by mid-January. This year, the IRS opened its e-file system on Jan. 30, just before the end of H&R Block's fiscal third quarter on Jan. 31. In addition, the IRS and other taxing jurisdictions did not accept certain tax forms until early March. As a result, the company believes industry-wide tax filings through Feb. 28 have been delayed by up to two weeks versus the comparable prior year period.
Total U.S. tax returns prepared by and through H&R Block were lower by 5.8 percent through Feb. 28.(1) The company estimates that industry-wide U.S. tax filings were down approximately 8 percent on a comparable date-to-date basis through Feb. 28. The company believes industry-wide U.S. filings will fully normalize and grow 1 to 2 percent by the end of the tax season.
"We entered this tax season with a very thoughtful plan and while we've had to make some adjustments due to the unprecedented delays and competitive factors, I am pleased with our execution to date," said Bill Cobb, H&R Block's president and chief executive officer. "Our analysis of industry data gives us confidence that we are on track with our plans for fiscal 2013."
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*Adjusted amounts and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) are non-GAAP financial measures. See "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below for more information regarding financial measures not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
"The delayed start to this tax season led to a material shift of business from our fiscal third quarter to our fiscal fourth quarter," said Greg Macfarlane, H&R Block's chief financial officer. "As a result, our third quarter results are not indicative of the results we expect to achieve this fiscal year. Our cost reduction initiatives remain on track and we continue to believe that we'll deliver significant earnings and margin expansion in fiscal 2013," added Macfarlane.
A previously announced quarterly cash dividend of 20 cents per share is payable on April 1, 2013 to shareholders of record as of March 18, 2013. The April 1 dividend payment will mark H&R Block's 202nd consecutive quarterly dividend since the company went public in 1962.
H&R Block, Inc. (NYSE: HRB) is the world's largest consumer tax services provider. More than 600 million tax returns have been prepared worldwide by and through H&R Block since 1955. In fiscal 2012, H&R Block had annual revenues of $2.9 billion with 25.6 million tax returns prepared worldwide. Tax return preparation services are provided in company-owned and franchise retail tax offices by approximately 90,000 professional tax preparers, and through H&R Block At Home™ digital products. H&R Block Bank provides affordable banking products and services. For more information, visit the H&R Block Online Press Center.
This press release and the accompanying tables include non-GAAP financial measures. For a description of these non-GAAP financial measures, including the reasons management uses each measure, and reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, please see the section of the accompanying tables titled "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures."
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include words or variation of words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "targets," "would," "will," "should," "could" or "may" or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements provide management's current expectations or predictions of future conditions, events or results. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future are forward-looking statements. They may include estimates of revenues, income, earnings per share, capital expenditures, dividends, liquidity, capital structure or other financial items, descriptions of management's plans or objectives for future operations, products or services, or descriptions of assumptions underlying any of the above. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and reflect the Company's good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance or events. Furthermore, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions, factors, or expectations, new information, data or methods, future events or other changes, except as required by law. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, a variety of economic, competitive and regulatory factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control and which are described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2012 in the section entitled "Risk Factors," as well as additional factors we may describe from time to time in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors and, consequently, you should not consider any such list to be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties.
(1) Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons, including those made to the "prior year," refer to the current period compared to the prior year period.
(2) All per share amounts are based on fully diluted shares.
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Basic earnings per share is computed using the two-class method and is based on the weighted average number of shares outstanding. The dilutive effect of potential common shares is included in diluted earnings per share, except in those periods with a loss from continuing operations.
On October 25, 2012, we issued $500.0 million of 5.50% Senior Notes. The Senior Notes are due November 1, 2022, and are not redeemable by the bondholders prior to maturity, although we have the right to redeem some or all of these notes at any time, at specified redemption prices. On October 25, 2012, we provided notice to the trustee of our intention to redeem the entire principal amount of the $600.0 million Senior Notes due in January 2013. The redemption settled on November 26, 2012 at a price of $623.0 million, which included full payment of principal, a make-whole premium of $5.8 million and interest accrued up to the redemption date of $17.2 million. Proceeds of the $500.0 million Senior Notes and other cash balances were used to repay the $600.0 million Senior Notes. We recognized a loss on the extinguishment of this debt of $5.8 million during the three months ended January 31, 2013, which primarily represents the interest that would have been paid on these notes if they had not been redeemed prior to maturity. This loss is included in other income (expense), net on our consolidated statements of operations.
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The accompanying press release contains non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (GAAP). Because these measures are not measures of financial performance under GAAP and are susceptible to varying calculations, they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures in other companies.
We consider non-GAAP financial measures to be a useful metric for management and investors to evaluate and compare the ongoing operating performance of our business on a consistent basis across reporting periods, as it eliminates the effect of items that are not indicative of the our core operating performance.
The following are descriptions of adjustments we make for our non-GAAP financial measures:
We may consider whether other significant items that arise in the future should also be excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures.
We measure the performance of our business using a variety of metrics, including EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted pretax and net income of continuing operations, adjusted EPS and adjusted pretax results of our Tax Services segment. We also use EBITDA and pretax income of continuing operations as factors in incentive compensation calculations for our employees. These adjusted results eliminate the impact of items that we do not consider indicative of our core operating performance and, we believe, provide meaningful information to assist in understanding our financial results, analyzing trends in our underlying business, and assessing our prospects for future performance.
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