The tax season has just come to an end, and once again we've shown strong results for our online and telephone services during this busy and important time of year.
Last year, we became the first transfer agent to integrate with TurboTax software to improve the filing process for shareholders and employee stock purchase plan participants. This year, we expanded to include H&R Block's tax software.
More than 161,000 account holders made use of the TurboTax and H&R Block capabilities. The largest number of uses came on April 10, with a total 5,749 people accessing their records through the two tools. This narrowly beat out the final tax deadline day of April 18, which had 5,748 uses.
Our "quick tax" link on the Investor Center homepage, which offers direct and immediate access to tax forms needed for filings, continues to be a popular option with account holders. This year saw more than 219,000 uses of the quick tax link.
Just as we have in past years, we ramped up the staffing levels in our call centers to make sure we had enough agents to work with shareholders and plan participants to get the answers they needed in a timely fashion.
Our call centers fielded more than 41,000 calls from shareholders and plan participants from Jan. 1 through April 18 on tax-related issues – the most common being general tax inquiries and requests for new/duplicate forms. To give an idea of the amount of calls our customer service team fields, the tax-specific calls only accounted for about 4 percent of the total call volume in that time period – the easy availability of tax forms and information online likely leading to fewer calls.
Last year, we became the first transfer agent to integrate with TurboTax software to improve the filing process for shareholders and employee stock purchase plan participants. This year, we expanded to include H&R Block's tax software.
More than 161,000 account holders made use of the TurboTax and H&R Block capabilities. The largest number of uses came on April 10, with a total 5,749 people accessing their records through the two tools. This narrowly beat out the final tax deadline day of April 18, which had 5,748 uses.
Our "quick tax" link on the Investor Center homepage, which offers direct and immediate access to tax forms needed for filings, continues to be a popular option with account holders. This year saw more than 219,000 uses of the quick tax link.
Just as we have in past years, we ramped up the staffing levels in our call centers to make sure we had enough agents to work with shareholders and plan participants to get the answers they needed in a timely fashion.
Our call centers fielded more than 41,000 calls from shareholders and plan participants from Jan. 1 through April 18 on tax-related issues – the most common being general tax inquiries and requests for new/duplicate forms. To give an idea of the amount of calls our customer service team fields, the tax-specific calls only accounted for about 4 percent of the total call volume in that time period – the easy availability of tax forms and information online likely leading to fewer calls.