The tax season has just concluded, and once again we've shown strong results for our online and telephone services during this busy and important time of year.
We are the first transfer agent to integrate with TurboTax and H&R Block tax preparation software to improve the filing process for shareholders and employee stock purchase plan participants. Nearly 155,000 account holders made use of the TurboTax and H&R Block capabilities.
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 305,000 uses of the quick tax link – an increase of nearly 40 percent over last year..
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. To give an idea of the amount of calls our customer service team fields, on average, the tax-specific calls account for less than five percent of the total call volume between Jan. 1 and Tax Day – the easy availability of tax forms and information online likely leading to fewer calls.