Intuit Posts 8 Pct Q3 Revenue Hit

Intuit, the maker of financial software TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint, is posting an 8 percent decline in revenue, pointing in a statement to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic as being the cause. The quarter ended April 30.

Sasan Goodarzi, Intuit’s chief executive officer, said that the company had a solid first-half of the fiscal year, and was looking at revenue growth of 14 percent. But the pandemic ended the momentum gained the first six to nine months.

Once the IRS extended the tax filing deadline to July 15, “this caused the timing of millions of tax filings to shift later in the season, resulting in total revenue declining 8 percent in the quarter,” he said in the statement. “Additionally, the shelter-in-place directives negatively impacted small businesses who are facing loss of income and cash flow to pay employees and weather the storm.”

Intuit reported total revenue of $3 billion, down 8 percent, the company said. Small business and self-employed group revenue was up 11 percent to $1 billion. Small business online ecosystem revenue grew 28 percent. Consumer Group revenue declined 15 percent to $1.8 billion.

Intuit anticipates that its clients with complicated tax returns will opt to hold off filing until later in the season. 

QuickBooks saw revenue increase 36 percent in the quarter and was the driver behind the increase in revenue from online services, up 16 percent.

“The majority of Intuit’s customers, which are service-based businesses, were negatively impacted by shelter-in-place,” according to the statement.

Intuit was launched in Silicon Valley in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx. Their latest funding was raised on Jan. 19, 2011 from a Post-IPO Equity round.

In February, Intuit closed a deal to buy Credit Karma for $7.1 billion. The merger will give both companies access to a trove of data. Credit Karma generated around $1 billion in revenue last year and opted against going for an initial public offering.