10-K
Tables of Contents


 
 
 
 
 

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
______________________________________

FORM 10-K
þ
 
Annual Report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the fiscal year ended July 31, 2015

OR
o
 
Transition report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the transition period from                                          to                                          

Commission File Number 0-21180


INTUIT INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware
(State of incorporation)
 
77-0034661
(IRS Employer Identification No.)

2700 Coast Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043
(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(650) 944-6000
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
 
Title of Each Class
 
Name of Exchange on Which Registered
 
Common Stock, $0.01 par value
 
NASDAQ Global Select Market

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes þ No o

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes o No þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports); and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes þ No o

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. þ


Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one)
Large accelerated filer þ
 
Accelerated filer o
 
Non-accelerated filer o
 
Smaller reporting company o
 
 
 
 
(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)
 
 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes o No þ

The aggregate market value of Intuit Inc. outstanding common stock held by non-affiliates of Intuit as of January 30, 2015, the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter, based on the closing price of $86.82 reported by the NASDAQ Global Select Market on that date, was $23.2 billion.

There were 277,306,606 shares of Intuit voting common stock outstanding as of August 24, 2015.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on January 21, 2016 are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

 
 
 
 
 



Tables of Contents

INTUIT INC.
FISCAL 2015 FORM 10-K

INDEX
Item
 
Page
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 EX-10.24
 EX-10.25
 EX-10.56
 EX-10.64
 EX-10.75
 EX-21.01
 EX-23.01
 EX-31.01
 EX-31.02
 EX-32.01
 EX-32.02
 EX-101.INS XBRL Instance Document
 EX-101.SCH XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema
 EX-101.CAL XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase
 EX-101.LAB XBRL Taxonomy Extensions Label Linkbase
 EX-101.PRE XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase
 EX-101.DEF XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase


Intuit, the Intuit logo, QuickBooks, TurboTax, Lacerte, ProSeries, and Mint, among others, are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Intuit Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States and other countries. Other parties’ marks are the property of their respective owners.

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This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Please see the section entitled “Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Report for important information to consider when evaluating these statements.

PART I

ITEM 1
BUSINESS

CORPORATE BACKGROUND
General
Intuit Inc. creates business and financial management solutions that help simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers, and accounting professionals. With flagship products and services that include QuickBooks and TurboTax, we help customers solve important business and financial management problems such as running a small business, paying bills, and filing income taxes. ProSeries and Lacerte are Intuit’s leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. We had revenue of $4.2 billion in our fiscal year ended July 31, 2015, with approximately 7,700 employees in major offices in the United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, and other locations at that time.
Intuit was incorporated in California in March 1984. We reincorporated in Delaware and completed our initial public offering in March 1993. Our principal executive offices are located at 2700 Coast Avenue, Mountain View, California, 94043, and our main telephone number is 650-944-6000. Our corporate website, www.intuit.com, provides materials for investors and information relating to Intuit’s corporate governance. The content on any website referred to in this filing is not incorporated by reference into this filing unless expressly noted otherwise. When we refer to “we,” “our” or “Intuit” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we mean the current Delaware corporation (Intuit Inc.) and its California predecessor, as well as all of our consolidated subsidiaries.
Available Information
We file reports required of public companies with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These include annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and other reports, and amendments to these reports. The public may read and copy the materials we file with or furnish to the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC also maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. We make available free of charge on the Investor Relations section of our corporate website all of the reports we file with or furnish to the SEC as soon as reasonably practicable after the reports are filed or furnished. Copies of this Annual Report on Form 10-K may also be obtained without charge by contacting Investor Relations, Intuit Inc., P.O. Box 7850, Mountain View, California 94039-7850 or by calling 650-944-6000.
BUSINESS OVERVIEW
Intuit’s Mission
We seek to be a premier innovative growth company that improves our customers’ financial lives so profoundly they can’t imagine going back to the old way.
Our customers include consumers and small businesses, and the accounting professionals who serve and advise them. We help simplify the business of life in four ways:
Improving financial strength – Helping consumers make and save money and small businesses to grow and profit.
Increasing productivity – Turning drudgery into time for what matters most.
Maintaining compliance – Helping customers comply with regulations.
Building confidence – Sharing the wisdom and experience of others. 
As emerging technology and market trends change the way people live and work, we change, too. We’ve adapted our product line, moving from the desktop to the Internet and mobile devices. By offering many services online, we’re connecting customers to our solutions and with each other in ways that add more value to our products and services.

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Our growth strategy is described below and focuses on two key outcomes:
To be the operating system behind small business success.
To do the nations’ taxes in the United States and Canada.
We apply this vision globally, helping our customers expand their business to domestic and global markets, creating and selling our own products internationally, and extending our recruiting efforts to new countries to find best-in-class talent.
Our Business Portfolio
We organize our businesses into three reportable segments – Small Business, Consumer Tax, and Professional Tax.
Small Business: This segment targets small businesses and the accounting professionals who serve them and includes QuickBooks financial and business management online services and desktop software, payroll solutions, and payment processing solutions.
Consumer Tax: This segment targets consumers and includes TurboTax income tax preparation products and services.
Professional Tax: This segment targets professional accountants in the U.S. and Canada and includes Lacerte, ProSeries, ProFile, and Intuit Tax Online professional tax products and services.
Recent Developments. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, management approved a divestiture plan and an organizational realignment to increase our focus on the two strategic outcomes described in “Intuit’s Mission” above. The divestiture plan included our Demandforce and QuickBase businesses, which were part of the Small Business segment, and our Quicken business, which was part of the Consumer Ecosystem product line in the former Consumer segment. As a result, we classified these three businesses as discontinued operations in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 and have not included them in the description of our portfolio of businesses above. The remaining components of the Consumer Ecosystem product line are now included in the Small Business segment and the former Consumer segment is now called the Consumer Tax segment.
Our Growth Strategy
Based on our assessment of key technology and demographic trends – an increasingly borderless world, the prevalence of mobile devices, and the scalability of the cloud – we see significant opportunities to drive future growth by continuing to solve the unmet needs of consumers, small businesses, and accounting professionals. Our evolving growth strategy includes three key elements:

Focus on the product – we call it “Delivering awesome product experiences.” Computing devices are moving to the palm of our hands in the form of tablets and smart phones. Our TurboTax solutions, for example, let customers prepare and file their entire tax returns online, via tablet, mobile phone or desktop computer. We also believe that a key factor in growing our customer base is delivering an amazing first-use experience so our customers can get the value they expect from our offerings as quickly and easily as possible.

Creating network effect platforms – we call it “Enabling the contributions of others.” We expect to solve problems faster and more efficiently for our growing customer base by moving to more open platforms with application programming interfaces that enable the contributions of end users and third-party developers. One example of this is QuickBooks Online, which allows small business customers all over the world to localize, configure, and add value to the offering.

Leveraging our data for our customers’ benefit – we call it “Using data to create delight.” Our customers generate valuable data that we seek to appropriately use to deliver better products and breakthrough benefits by eliminating the need to enter data, helping them make better decisions, and improving transactions and interactions.
This strategy recognizes the emergence and influence of the digital generation, the increasing relevance of social networks, and customers’ growing reliance on the Internet, mobile devices and information-based technology to manage important financial tasks. It also acknowledges the potential of new market opportunities around the world. The result is a global market that is shifting from traditional services that are paper-based, human-produced, and brick-and-mortar bound, to one where people understand, demand, and embrace the benefits of connected services.
We continue to make significant progress in this environment. Connected services (total service and other revenue) generated $3.0 billion or 73 percent of our total revenue in fiscal 2015, compared with about 50 percent of our total revenue seven years ago.

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Summary
As the way we live and work evolves, we adapt our strategy to meet and lead these changes. Yet our commitment remains consistent: developing an ecosystem of innovative products and services that are so convenient and easy to use that customers actively recommend them to others. It’s been our success formula for more than 30 years as we’ve worked to solve people’s important business and financial management problems. And we’ll maintain that commitment as we continue to evolve, working to help people solve each other’s problems, connecting people to people and to solutions, wherever they are, whenever they want them, and on any device they choose.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
During fiscal 2015 we offered our products and services in the three segments described in “Business Overview” above. The following table shows the classes of similar products or services that accounted for 10% or more of total net revenue within the last three fiscal years.
 
Fiscal 2015
 
Fiscal 2014
 
Fiscal 2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
Small Business
50
%
 
51
%
 
50
%
Consumer Tax
43
%
 
39
%
 
40
%
Professional Tax
7
%
 
10
%
 
10
%
Our products and services are described below. International total net revenue was less than 5% of consolidated total net revenue for fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014, and fiscal 2013. See Item 1A, “Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements – Our international operations are subject to increased risks which may harm our business, operating results, and financial condition,” for a discussion of risks relating to our international operations.
For financial information about our segments, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 and Note 14 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report.
Small Business
Our Small Business segment includes online ecosystem and desktop ecosystem solutions that allow small businesses and the accounting professionals who serve them to save time and grow their businesses.
Small Business Online Ecosystem Solutions
QuickBooks Online. Our QuickBooks Online offerings bring small business users and accounting professionals financial management tools that are designed to be easy to use and are accessible from personal computers and mobile devices. QuickBooks Online users can track income and expenses, create invoices and estimates, manage and pay bills, and review a variety of financial reports. Our online offerings for small businesses include QuickBooks Self Employed, for independent contractors and solo entrepreneurs; QuickBooks Online Simple Start, for smaller, less complex businesses; and QuickBooks Online Essentials and QuickBooks Online Plus, for progressively larger and more complex businesses. Our online offering for accounting professionals is QuickBooks Online Accountant, which provides the tools and file-sharing capabilities they need to efficiently complete bookkeeping and financial reporting tasks.
Our QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program to support online clients is a subscription-based membership for professional accountants that provides Quickbooks Online Accountant and QuickBooks Online Payroll services, technical support, training, product certification, access to marketing tools, and discounts on Intuit products and services purchased on behalf of clients.
Online Payroll Solutions. We offer two online payroll solutions that are sold on a subscription basis and seamlessly integrate with our Quickbooks Online and QuickBooks desktop offerings. QuickBooks Online Payroll includes online payroll processing, direct deposit of employee paychecks, payroll reports, electronic payment of federal and state payroll taxes, and electronic filing of federal and state payroll tax forms. QuickBooks Full Service Payroll provides comprehensive payroll services to QuickBooks customers who prefer not to perform payroll tasks themselves.
Intuit Online Payroll provides small business payroll services that do not require the use of QuickBooks. This offering is sold on a subscription basis and includes online payroll tax calculation, direct deposit of employee paychecks, payroll reports, electronic payment of federal and state payroll taxes, and federal and state payroll tax forms. We also offer an Intuit Online Payroll mobile app for smartphones.
Intuit Full Service Payroll provides comprehensive payroll services to customers who prefer not to perform payroll tasks themselves and does not require the use of QuickBooks. This offering is sold on a subscription basis and includes processing of

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payrolls based on information submitted online by the payroll customer, direct deposit of employee paychecks, electronic payment of federal and state payroll taxes, electronic filing of federal and state payroll tax forms, and preparation and issuance of year end W-2 forms.
Online Payments Solutions. We offer a full range of merchant services to small businesses that include credit card, debit card, electronic benefits, and gift card processing services; check verification, check guarantee, and electronic check conversion, including automated clearing house (ACH) capabilities; and Web-based transaction processing services for online merchants. In addition to transaction processing services, we provide a full range of support for our clients that includes customer service, merchant and consumer collections, chargeback and retrieval support, and fraud and loss prevention screening.
We also offer e-invoicing, which allows small businesses to email invoices directly from QuickBooks with a Pay Now link and enables customers to pay instantly online or from their mobile device.
GoPayment allows users to accept credit card payments using a smartphone or tablet device. They can enter the credit card information manually or use a card swiper that attaches to the phone to capture the information. They can also send electronic receipts to their customers via e-mail or text message.
Intuit Developer Group. The Intuit Developer Group provides the tools developers need to create online and mobile applications that add value to QuickBooks. The platform allows developers to build applications that integrate with QuickBooks data and solve the unique needs of our customers. Developers can create applications using any development platform they choose, and must pass a standards and security check before offering their programs to customers. All applications are available through the Intuit App Center at apps.com. Here QuickBooks users can find, buy and use applications connected to the platform. A growing number of companies offer applications built for the platform, including PayPal, Shopify, Square, and Bill.com.
Small Business Desktop Ecosystem Solutions
QuickBooks. Our desktop software offerings include QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, which provide accounting functionality for small businesses, and QuickBooks Premier, which provides small businesses with advanced accounting functionality and business planning tools. QuickBooks Pro Plus and QuickBooks Premier Plus are subscription versions of these offerings. QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions is designed for larger businesses. Our Premier and Enterprise products provide industry-specific reports and features for a range of industries, including Contractor, Manufacturing and Wholesale, Nonprofit, and Retail.
Our offerings for accounting professionals include QuickBooks Accountant desktop software and QuickBooks Accountant Plus subscriptions. They provide the tools and file-sharing capabilities needed to efficiently complete bookkeeping and financial reporting tasks. Our QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program Desktop Add-On is a subscription-based membership for professional accountants that provides QuickBooks Accountant Plus, QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Accountant, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, QuickBooks Point of Sale Multi Store, technical support, training, product certification, access to marketing tools, and discounts on Intuit products and services purchased on behalf of clients.
Desktop Payroll Solutions. QuickBooks Payroll is a family of products sold on a subscription basis to small businesses that use QuickBooks desktop software and prepare their own payroll or want some assistance with preparing their payroll. It is also sold to accountants who use QuickBooks desktop software and help their clients manage their payrolls. The product family includes:
QuickBooks Basic Payroll, which provides payroll tax tables, direct deposit of employee paychecks, and payroll reports;
QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll, which provides payroll tax tables, direct deposit of employee paychecks, payroll reports, federal and state payroll tax forms, and eFile & Pay for federal and state payroll taxes; and
QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants, which has several accountant-specific features in addition to the features in QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll.
We also offer QuickBooks Assisted Payroll, through which we provide the back-end aspects of payroll processing, including tax payments and filings, for customers who process their payrolls using QuickBooks desktop software.
Desktop Payments Solutions. We offer a full range of merchant services to small businesses that include credit card, debit card, electronic benefits, and gift card processing services; check verification, check guarantee, and electronic check conversion, including automated clearing house (ACH) capabilities. In addition to transaction processing services, we provide a full range of support for our clients that includes customer service, merchant and consumer collections, chargeback and retrieval support, and fraud and loss prevention screening.

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We also offer e-invoicing, which allows small businesses to email invoices directly from QuickBooks with a Pay Now link and enables customers to pay instantly online or from their mobile device.
We offer Basic, Pro, and Multi Store versions of QuickBooks Point of Sale, which helps retailers process sales using barcodes, track inventory and customer purchases, and integrates with QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions. The Point of Sale Pro version has advanced inventory and employee commission tracking capabilities. The Point of Sale Multi Store version provides all of the features of the Point of Sale Pro version and the ability to manage multiple stores from a single office. We sell these software products with or without the accompanying hardware and technical support.
QuickBooks Technical Support. We offer several technical support options to all of our QuickBooks customers. These include support plans that are sold separately and priced based on the length of the plan. We also offer a limited amount of free technical support assistance to customers, a free self-help information section on our QuickBooks.com website and free access to the QuickBooks Community, an online forum where QuickBooks users can share information with each other.
Financial Supplies. We offer a range of financial supplies designed for small businesses and individuals that use QuickBooks. These include standard paper checks and Secure Plus checks with CheckLock™ fraud protection features; envelopes, invoices and deposit slips; and business identity products such as business cards and stationery. We also offer tax forms, tax return presentation folders and other supplies for professional tax preparers.
Consumer Tax
Our TurboTax products and services are designed to enable individuals to prepare and file their own federal and state personal income tax returns quickly and accurately. They are designed to be easy to use, yet sophisticated enough for complex tax returns. Most of these offerings are available on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Tax Return Preparation Offerings. For the U.S. 2014 tax season we offered a range of software products and services that included TurboTax Basic, for simple returns; TurboTax Deluxe, for taxpayers who itemize deductions; TurboTax Premier, for taxpayers who own investments or rental property; and TurboTax Home and Business, for small business owners. We also offered TurboTax Free Edition for the simplest returns. We offered live tax advice from U.S.-based tax professionals to TurboTax customers during the 2014 tax season. TurboTax Answer Exchange is an online forum where participants can learn from and share information with other users while preparing their income tax returns. Our TurboTax Canada offerings consist of desktop, online, and mobile offerings.
Electronic Filing and Other Services. Our desktop, online, and mobile tax preparation customers can electronically file their federal and state income tax returns through our electronic filing center. For the 2014 tax season our online tax preparation and filing services were offered through the websites of thousands of financial institutions, electronic retailers, and other online merchants, and on Yahoo!® Finance Tax Center, MSN Money® Tax Center, and AOL DailyFinance Tax Center. Financial institutions can offer our online tax preparation and filing services to their customers through a link to TurboTax Online. For the 2014 tax season we also offered TurboTax customers the option to receive their income tax refunds on a prepaid debit card that we provided through a partner.
Intuit Tax Freedom Project. Under the Intuit Tax Freedom Project, we provide online federal and state income tax return preparation and electronic filing services at no charge to eligible taxpayers. For the 2014 tax season we provided approximately 1.1 million free federal returns under this initiative. We are a member of the Free File Alliance, a consortium of private sector companies that has entered into an agreement with the federal government to provide free online federal tax preparation and filing services to eligible taxpayers. See also “Competition – Consumer Tax Segment” later in this Item 1 for more information on the Free File Alliance.
Professional Tax
Our Professional Tax offerings enable accountants to accurately and efficiently complete a full range of consumer, small business and commercial federal and state tax returns with both desktop and online offerings. Lacerte is designed for full service accounting firms who handle more complex returns. We offer two versions of our ProSeries software: ProSeries Professional Edition, designed for year-round tax practices handling moderately complex tax returns, and ProSeries Basic Edition, designed for the needs of smaller and seasonal tax practices. Intuit Tax Online is our cloud-based solution which is designed for year-round practices who prepared moderately complex consumer and small business returns and integrates with our QuickBooks Online offerings. ProFile is our Canadian tax offering which serves year-round full service accounting firms for both consumer and business tax returns. We offer a variety of tax-related services that compliment the tax return preparation process including year-round document storage and access, collaboration services, e-signature, bank products, and options for consumers to receive their tax refund on a debit card provided through a partner.

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PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Since the markets for software and related services are characterized by rapid technological change, shifting customer needs and frequent new product introductions and enhancements, a continuous high level of investment is required to innovate and quickly develop new products and services as well as enhance existing offerings. Our product development efforts are becoming more important than ever as we pursue our connected services strategy, which reflects a world where people and businesses are increasingly connected by technology and expect access to services at any time in any place.
We develop many of our products and services internally. We have a number of United States and foreign patents and pending applications that relate to various aspects of our products and technology. We supplement our internal development efforts by acquiring or licensing products and technology from third parties, and establishing other relationships that enable us to enhance or expand our offerings more rapidly. We expect to expand our third party technology relationships as we continue to pursue our connected services strategy.
Our traditional desktop software products – QuickBooks, TurboTax, Lacerte, and ProSeries – tend to have predictable annual development and product release cycles. We also develop innovative new offerings, including mobile applications, for which development cycles are often more rapid. Developing consumer and professional tax software and services presents unique challenges because of the demanding development cycle required to accurately incorporate federal and state tax law and tax form changes within a rigid timetable. The development timing for our small business payroll and merchant payment processing services offerings varies with business needs and regulatory requirements and the length of the development cycle depends on the scope and complexity of each project.
We continue to make substantial investments in research and development, and we expect to focus our future research and development efforts on enhancing existing products and services and on developing new products and services, including new mobile and global offerings. We also expect to continue to focus significant research and development efforts on ongoing projects to update the technology platforms for several of our offerings. Our research and development expenses were $798 million or 19% of total net revenue in fiscal 2015; $714 million or 17% of total net revenue in fiscal 2014; and $647 million or 17% of total net revenue in fiscal 2013.
SEASONALITY
Our Consumer Tax, Professional Tax, and QuickBooks offerings have significant and distinct seasonal patterns. As a result, our total net revenue is usually highest during our second quarter ending January 31 and third quarter ending April 30. We typically report losses in our first quarter ending October 31 and fourth quarter ending July 31, when our total net revenue is lower but core operating expenses such as research and development continue at relatively consistent levels. Although the seasonal patterns for all three of our reporting segments continue to evolve as described below, we expect the overall seasonality of our business to continue to have a significant impact on our quarterly financial results in the future.
Our Consumer Tax and Professional Tax offerings are highly seasonal. Sales of income tax preparation products and services are heavily concentrated from November through April. In addition, an increasing proportion of our Consumer Tax revenue has been shifting to later in this seasonal period and we expect that trend to continue in the future. This is due in part to the growth in sales of TurboTax Online, for which we recognize revenue toward the end of the tax preparation process, when tax returns are printed or electronically filed. The seasonality of our Consumer Tax and Professional Tax revenue is also affected by the timing of the availability of tax forms from taxing agencies and the ability of those agencies to receive electronic tax return submissions. Delays in the availability of tax forms or the ability of taxing agencies to receive submissions can cause Consumer Tax and Professional Tax revenue to shift between our fiscal quarters. In fiscal 2015 we began delivering ongoing enhancements and certain connected services for our Professional Tax desktop software offerings. As a result of this change, we recognize revenue for these offerings as services are provided through the end of each calendar year.
In our Small Business segment, prior to fiscal 2015 we launched annual releases of our QuickBooks desktop software products each fall and revenue for those products tended to be highest around calendar year end, during our second and third fiscal quarters. Starting with QuickBooks 2015, which was released in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, we began delivering ongoing enhancements and certain connected services for our QuickBooks desktop software products. As a result of this change, we recognize revenue for these QuickBooks desktop products as services are provided over approximately three years. Customers are also increasingly choosing the online and subscription versions of our QuickBooks offerings, for which we recognize revenue as the services are provided. Customer acquisition for these offerings tends to be highest around calendar year end, during our second and third fiscal quarters. For these reasons, the seasonality of our Small Business segment revenue has started to become less pronounced and we expect that trend to continue in the future.

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MARKETING, SALES AND DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
Markets
Our primary target customers are small businesses, consumers, and accounting professionals. The markets in which we compete have always been characterized by rapid technological change, shifting customer needs, and frequent new product introductions and enhancements by competitors. Over the past several years, the widespread availability of the Internet, mobile devices, and the explosion of social media have accelerated the pace of change and revolutionized the way that customers learn about, evaluate, and purchase products and services.
Real-time, personalized online and mobile shopping experiences are rapidly becoming the standard. In addition, many customers now begin shopping in one channel and ultimately purchase in another. This creates a need for integrated, multi-channel, shop-and-buy experiences. Market and industry changes quickly make existing products and services obsolete. Our success depends on our ability to respond rapidly to these changes with new business models, updated competitive strategies, new or enhanced products and services, alternative distribution methods and other changes in the way we do business.
Marketing Programs
To sell our products and services to small businesses, consumers, and accounting professionals, we use a variety of traditional and innovative marketing programs to generate software orders, stimulate demand, and generally maintain and increase customer awareness of our product portfolio. These programs include: Internet marketing and targeted advertising, such as search engine optimization and purchasing keywords from major search engine companies; placing and promoting our mobile applications in proprietary online stores; direct-response mail and e-mail campaigns; telephone solicitations; newspaper, magazine, billboard, radio and television advertising; social media campaigns; and coordinated promotional offers with major retailers. We also use workflow-integrated, in-product discovery in some of our software products to market other related products and services, including third-party products and services. In addition, we create marketing campaigns that attract new users through free promotional offerings that are designed to ultimately convert them to paying customers.
Sales and Distribution Channels
Multi-Channel Shop-and-Buy Experiences. Our consumer and small business customers increasingly use the Internet and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to research products and services. Some customers buy and use our products and services entirely online or through their mobile devices. Others purchase desktop products and services using the Internet. Still others make their final decision at a retail location. We coordinate our websites, promotions, and retail displays to support this integrated, multi-channel, shop-and-buy model.
Direct Sales Channel. We sell many of our products and services for small businesses, consumers, and accounting professionals directly through our websites and call centers. Telesales continues to be an effective channel for serving customers that want live help to select the products and services that are right for their needs. We also have a direct sales force that calls on U.S. and international accountant firms and seeks to increase their awareness and useage of our Small Business ecosytem solutions.
Retail Channel. We sell our QuickBooks and TurboTax desktop software as well as payroll services and merchant credit card payment processing services at retail locations across the United States. We sell these products and services directly and through distributors to office supply superstores, warehouse clubs, consumer electronics retailers, general mass merchandisers, online retailers, and catalogs. In Canada and other international markets we also rely on distributors and other third parties who sell products into the retail channel. The retail channel provides broad customer reach through retailer-sponsored advertising and exposure to retail foot traffic. This channel also gives us the opportunity to communicate our products, services and messages through multiple touch points and allows us to serve our customers at relatively modest cost.
Online Mobile Application Stores. We distribute many of our offerings for mobile devices through proprietary online stores that provide applications for specific devices. These include the Apple App Store, which provides apps for the Apple iPhone and iPad, and Google’s Play Store, which provides apps for Android-compatible smartphones and tablets.
Other Channels. We have strategies to address the alliance partner and solution provider channels. We sell our consumer and small business products and services through selected alliance partners, primarily financial institutions and target partners. These alliance partners help us reach new customers at the point of need and drive growth and market share by extending our online reach. Solution providers combine our products and services with value-added marketing, sales, and technical expertise to deliver a complete solution at the local level. As we expand our mobile and global offerings, we expect that strategic partnerships will become increasingly important to our business.
COMPETITION
Overview
We face intense competition in all of our businesses, both domestically and internationally. Competitive interest and expertise in many of the markets we serve have grown markedly over the past few years and we expect this trend to continue. Some of our existing competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, and marketing resources than we do. In addition, the competitive landscape can shift rapidly as new companies enter markets in which we compete. This is particularly true for online and mobile products and services, where the barriers to entry are lower than they are for desktop software products and services. To attract customers, many online and mobile competitors are offering free or low-priced entry-level products which we must take into account in our pricing strategies.
Our most obvious competition comes from other companies that offer technology solutions similar to ours. However, for many of our products and services, other important competitive alternatives for customers are third party service providers such as professional accountants and seasonal assisted tax preparation businesses. Manual tools and processes, or general-purpose software, are also important competitive alternatives.
Competition Specific to Segments
Small Business Segment. Our QuickBooks desktop product is the leading small business financial management software in the U.S. retail channel. Our small business products and services face competitive challenges from companies such as The Sage Group plc, which offers software and associated services that directly target small business customers. Increasingly, our small business products and services also face competition from newer online accounting offerings from companies such as Xero, free or low-cost online accounting offerings, and free online banking and bill payment services offered by financial institutions and others. In our payroll business we compete directly with Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), Paychex, and many other companies with payroll offerings, including online payroll offerings. In our merchant services business we compete directly with large financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America and with many payment processors, including First Data Corporation, Elavon, Global Payments, FIS-Certegy, PayPal, and Square.
Consumer Tax Segment. In our Consumer Tax segment, our future growth depends on our ability to attract new customers to the self-preparation tax category from tax stores and other tax preparers. In the U.S. private sector we face intense competition from H&R Block, which provides tax preparation services in its stores and a competing software offering called H&R Block At Home. We also face competition from several other large tax preparation service providers, from a myriad of small tax preparers, and from numerous online self-preparation offerings, including Blucora’s TaxACT. In Canada, our TurboTax Canada offerings face competition from H&R Block, SimpleTax, StudioTax, and U-File. These competing offerings subject us to significant price pressure in both the U.S. and Canada.
We also face competitive challenges from publicly funded government entities that offer electronic tax preparation and filing services at no cost to individual taxpayers. We are a member of the Free File Alliance, a consortium of private sector companies that has entered into an agreement with the federal government. Under this agreement, the member companies provide online federal tax preparation and filing services at no cost to eligible federal taxpayers, and the federal government has agreed not to provide a competing service. Approximately 22 states have also adopted Free File Alliance public-private agreements while approximately 20 other states offer some form of direct government tax preparation and filing services free to qualified taxpayers. We continue to actively work with others in the private and public sectors to advance the goals of the Free File Alliance policy initiative and to support successful public-private partnerships. However, future administrative, regulatory, or legislative activity in this area could harm our Consumer Tax business.
Professional Tax Segment. In the U.S., Lacerte professional tax offerings face competition from competitively-priced tax and accounting solutions that include integration with non-tax functionality. These include CCH’s ProSystems fx Office Suite and Thomson Reuters’ CS Professional Suite and GoSystems Tax. Our ProSeries professional tax offerings face competition from CCH’s ATX and TaxWise offerings, Drake, and other smaller providers. In Canada, our ProFile professional tax offerings face competition from CCH’s Cantax and Taxprep offerings and from Thomson Reuters’ DTMax and UFile Pro offerings. We also face growing competition from online tax and accounting offerings, which may be marketed more effectively or have lower pricing than our offerings for accounting professionals.

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Competitive Factors
We believe the most important competitive factors for our core offerings – QuickBooks, TurboTax, Lacerte, and ProSeries – are ease of use, product features, size of the installed customer base, brand name recognition, value proposition, cost, reliability, and product and support quality. Access to distribution channels is also important for our QuickBooks and TurboTax software products. In addition, support from accounting professionals and the ability for customers to upgrade within product families as their businesses grow are significant competitive factors for our QuickBooks products. Productivity is an important competitive factor for the full-service accounting firms to which we market our Lacerte software products. We believe we compete effectively on these factors as our QuickBooks and TurboTax products are the leading products in the U.S. for their respective categories.
For our service offerings such as small business payroll and merchant payment processing, we believe the most important competitive factors are functionality, ease of use, high availability, the integration of these products with related software, brand name recognition, effective distribution, quality of support, and cost.
CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT
We provide customer service and technical support by telephone, e-mail, online chat, text messaging, online communities, and our customer service and technical support websites. We have full-time and outsourced customer service and technical support staffs. We supplement these staffs with seasonal employees and additional outsourcing during periods of peak call volumes, such as during the tax return filing season or following a major product launch. We outsource to several firms domestically and internationally. Most of our internationally outsourced consumer and small business customer service and technical support personnel are currently located in India and the Philippines.
We offer free self-help information through our technical support websites for our QuickBooks, TurboTax and Professional Tax software products. Customers can also use our websites to find answers to commonly asked questions and check on the status of orders. Under certain paid support plans, customers can also use our websites to receive product updates electronically. Support alternatives and fees vary by product. We sponsor online user communities such as Intuit Community for small businesses and accounting professionals, and TurboTax Answer Exchange, where consumers can share knowledge and product advice with each other. We also offer live tax advice from U.S.-based tax professionals to TurboTax users.
MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION
Online Products and Services
Intuit’s data centers house most of the systems, networks and databases required to operate and deliver our online products and services. These include QuickBooks Online, online payroll services, merchant payment processing services, TurboTax Online, Intuit Tax Online, and consumer and professional electronic tax filing services. Through our data centers, we connect customers to our products and services and store customer and business information. As our businesses continue to move toward delivering more online and mobile products and services in conjunction with our connected services strategy, we expect that our infrastructure will become even more critical to our business in the future.
Our primary data centers are a facility we own in Washington state and a co-located data center in Nevada. We also have a number of other data centers that are primarily located in the western United States and Canada. We continue to execute on a multi-year plan to transition to fewer data centers in more geographically diverse locations. In addition, we have an enterprise agreement with Amazon Web Services and over time will be hosting an increasing number of our applications and services in their secure online environment.
Desktop Software and Supplies
Although an increasing proportion of our desktop software customers choose to electronically download software, many customers continue to choose to purchase these products in the form of physical media. The key processes in manufacturing desktop software are manufacturing compact discs (CDs) and digital video discs (DVDs), printing boxes and related materials, and assembling and shipping the final products.
For retail manufacturing, we have an agreement with Arvato Digital Services, Inc., a division of Bertelsmann AG, under which Arvato provides a majority of the manufacturing volume for our launches of QuickBooks and TurboTax, as well as for day-to-day replenishment after product launches. Arvato has operations in multiple locations that can provide redundancy if necessary. We also have an agreement with Cinram Corp. under which Cinram provides outsourced manufacturing volume for these launches and for day-to-day replenishment.
For retail distribution, we have an agreement with Arvato under which Arvato handles all logistics services. Our retail product launches are operationally complex. Our model for product delivery for retail launches and replenishment is a hybrid of direct to store deliveries and shipments to central warehouse locations. This allows improved inventory management by our retailers. We also ship products for many of our smaller retail customers through distributors.

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Arvato also provides most of the manufacturing volume and distribution services for our direct desktop software orders. We have an exclusive agreement with Harland Clarke, a division of M&F Worldwide Corporation, to fulfill orders for all of our printed checks and most other products for our financial supplies business.
We have multiple sources for all of our raw materials and availability has historically not been a significant problem for us. We continue to see consolidation among CD/DVD suppliers and reduced demand overall for this media type. As a result, we believe CD/DVD media may become more difficult to obtain in the next three to five years.
Backlog is minimal and we typically ship products within a few days of receiving an order.
PRIVACY AND SECURITY OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION AND TRANSACTIONS
We are subject to various federal, state and international laws and regulations and to financial institution and healthcare provider requirements relating to the privacy and security of customer and employee personal information. We are also subject to laws and regulations that apply to the Internet, behavioral tracking and advertising, mobile applications and messaging, telemarketing, e-mail activities, data hosting and retention, financial and health information, and credit reporting. Additional laws in all of these areas are likely to be passed in the future, which could result in significant limitations on or changes to the ways in which we can collect, use, host, store or transmit the personal information and data of our customers or employees, communicate with our customers, and deliver products and services, or may significantly increase our compliance costs. As our business expands to new industry segments and new uses of data that are regulated for privacy and security, or to countries outside the United States that have strict data protections laws, our compliance requirements and costs will increase.
Through a Master Privacy Policy Framework designed to be consistent with globally recognized privacy principles, we comply with United States federal and other country guidelines and practices to help ensure that customers and employees are aware of, and can control, how we use information about them. Our primary websites and online products, such as Intuit.com, QuickBooks and TurboTax, have been certified by TRUSTe, an independent organization that operates a website and online product privacy certification program representing industry standard practices to address users’ and regulators’ concerns about online privacy. We also use privacy statements to provide notice to customers of our privacy practices, as well as provide them the opportunity to furnish instructions with respect to use of their personal information. We participate in industry groups whose purpose is to develop or shape industry best practices, and to influence public policy for privacy and security.
To address security concerns, we use security safeguards to help protect the systems and the information customers give to us from loss, misuse and unauthorized alteration. Whenever customers transmit sensitive information, such as credit card information or tax return data, through one of our websites or products, we use industry standards to encrypt the data as it is transmitted to us. We work to protect our systems from unauthorized internal or external access using numerous commercially available computer security products as well as internally developed security procedures and practices.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION
Our Consumer Tax and Professional Tax segments are subject to federal and state government requirements, including regulations related to the electronic filing of tax returns, the provision of tax preparer assistance, and the use and disclosure of customer information. In addition, we offer certain other products and services to small businesses and consumers, such as payroll, payments and financing, which are also subject to regulatory requirements. As we expand our products and services, both domestically and internationally, we may become subject to additional government regulation. Further, regulators may adopt new laws or regulations or their interpretation of existing laws or regulations may differ from ours or expand to cover additional products and services. These increased regulatory requirements could impose significant limitations on our business and increase our cost of compliance.
We are subject to federal and state laws and government regulations concerning employee safety and health and environmental matters. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal and state agencies have the authority to put regulations in place that may have an impact on our operations.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Our success depends on the proprietary technology embodied in our offerings. We protect this proprietary technology by relying on a variety of intellectual property mechanisms, including copyright, patent, trade secret and trademark laws, restrictions on disclosure and other methods. For example, we regularly file applications for patents, copyrights and trademarks and service marks in order to protect intellectual property that we believe is important to our business. We hold a growing patent portfolio that we believe is important to Intuit’s overall competitive advantage, although we are not materially dependent on any one patent or particular group of patents in our portfolio at this time. We also have a number of registered trademarks that include Intuit, QuickBooks, TurboTax, Lacerte, ProSeries, and Mint. We have registered these and other trademarks and service marks in the United States and, depending on the relevance of each brand to other markets, in many foreign countries. Most registrations can be renewed perpetually at 10-year intervals. We also license intellectual property from third parties for use in our products.
Although our portfolio of patents is growing, the patents that have been issued to us could be determined to be invalid and may not be enforceable against competitive products in every jurisdiction. In addition, third parties have asserted and may, in the future, assert infringement claims against us and our customers. These claims and any litigation may result in invalidation of our proprietary rights or a finding of infringement along with an assessment of damages. Litigation, even if without merit, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. In addition, third party licenses may not continue to be available to us on commercially acceptable terms, or at all.
EMPLOYEES
As of July 31, 2015, we had approximately 7,700 full-time employees in major offices in the United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom and other locations. We also employ a significant number of seasonal and contract employees during the second and third quarters of our fiscal years to support our consumer tax customers. For example, at the peak of the 2014 tax season we employed approximately 985 seasonal employees. We believe our future success and growth will depend on our ability to attract and retain qualified employees in all areas of our business. We do not currently have any collective bargaining agreements with our employees, and we believe employee relations are generally good. Although we have employment-related agreements with a number of key employees, these agreements do not guarantee continued service. We believe we offer competitive compensation and a good working environment. We were named one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in each of the last fourteen years. However, we face intense competition for qualified employees, and we expect to face continuing challenges in recruiting and retention.

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ITEM 1A
RISK FACTORS

Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. All statements in this report, other than statements that are purely historical, are forward-looking statements. Words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “seek,” and similar expressions also identify forward-looking statements. In this report, forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the following:
our expectations and beliefs regarding future conduct and growth of the business;
our beliefs and expectations regarding seasonality, competition and other trends that affect our business;
our expectation that we will solve problems faster and more efficiently for our growing base of customers by moving to more open platforms with application programming interfaces that enable the contributions of end users and third party developers;
Our expectation that we will expand our third party technology relationships and strategic partnerships as we continue to pursue our connected services strategy and expand our mobile and global offerings;
our expectation that we will continue to invest significant resources in our product development, marketing and sales capabilities;
our expectation that we will continue to invest significant management attention and resources in our information technology infrastructure and in our privacy and security capabilities;
our expectation that we will work with the broader industry and government to protect our customers from fraud;
our expectation that we will be able to protect our customers’ data and prevent third parties from using stolen customer information to perpetrate fraud in our tax and other offerings;
our belief that our recent financial performance has not been materially adversely affected by fraudulent activity or the actions we have taken to combat it;
our expectation that we will generate significant cash from operations;
our expectation that connected services revenue as a percentage of our total revenue will continue to grow;
our expectations regarding the development of future products, services, business models and technology platforms and our research and development efforts;
the assumptions underlying our critical accounting policies and estimates, including our estimates regarding product rebate and return reserves; the collectability of accounts receivable; stock volatility and other assumptions used to estimate the fair value of share-based compensation; the fair value of goodwill; and expected future amortization of acquired intangible assets;
our belief that the investments we hold are not other-than-temporarily impaired;
our belief that we take prudent measures to mitigate investment related risks;
our belief that our exposure to currency exchange fluctuation risk will not be significant in the future;
our assessments and estimates that determine our effective tax rate;
our belief that our income tax valuation allowance is sufficient;
our belief that it is not reasonably possible that there will be a significant increase or decrease in our unrecognized tax benefits over the next 12 months;
our intent to permanently reinvest a significant portion of our earnings from foreign operations, and our belief that we will not need funds generated from foreign operations to fund our domestic operations;
our belief that our cash and cash equivalents, investments and cash generated from operations will be sufficient to meet our seasonal working capital needs, capital expenditure requirements, contractual obligations, debt service requirements and other liquidity requirements associated with our operations for at least the next 12 months;
our belief that our facilities are suitable and adequate for our near-term needs and that we will be able to locate additional facilities as needed;

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our expectation that we will return excess cash generated by operations to our stockholders through repurchases of our common stock and the payment of cash dividends;
our assessments and beliefs regarding the future outcome of pending legal proceedings and inquiries by regulatory authorities, the liability, if any, that Intuit may incur as a result of those proceedings and inquiries, and the impact of any potential losses associated with such proceedings or inquiries on our financial statements.
We caution investors that forward-looking statements are only predictions based on our current expectations about future events and are not guarantees of future performance. We encourage you to read carefully all information provided in this report and in our other filings with the SEC before deciding to invest in our stock or to maintain or change your investment. These forward-looking statements are based on information as of the filing date of this Annual Report, and we undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason.

Because forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the following:

We face intense competitive pressures that may harm our operating results.

We face intense competition in all of our businesses, and we expect competition to remain intense in the future. Our competitors and potential competitors range from large and established entities to emerging start-ups. Our competitors may introduce superior products and services, reduce prices, have greater technical, marketing and other resources, have greater name recognition, have larger installed bases of customers, have well-established relationships with our current and potential customers, advertise aggressively or beat us to market with new products and services. In addition, we may face competition from existing companies, with large established consumer user-bases and broad-based platforms, who may change or expand the focus of their business strategies and marketing to target our customers, including small businesses and tax customers. We also face intensified competition from providers of free accounting, tax, payments, and other financial services. In order to compete, we have also introduced free offerings in several categories, but we may not be able to attract customers or effectively monetize all of these offerings, and customers who have formerly paid for Intuit’s products and services may elect to use free offerings instead. These competitive factors may diminish our revenue and profitability, and harm our ability to acquire and retain customers.

Our consumer tax business also faces significant competition from the public sector, where we face the risk of federal and state taxing authorities developing software or other systems to facilitate tax return preparation and electronic filing at no charge to taxpayers. These or similar programs may be introduced or expanded in the future, which may cause us to lose customers and revenue. Although the Free File Alliance has kept the federal government from being a direct competitor to Intuit’s tax offerings, it has fostered additional online competition and may cause us to lose significant revenue opportunities. The current agreement with the Free File Alliance is scheduled to expire in October 2020. We anticipate that governmental encroachment at both the federal and state levels may present a continued competitive threat to our business for the foreseeable future.

Future revenue growth depends upon our ability to adapt to technological change and successfully introduce new and enhanced products, services and business models.

The software as a service, desktop software and mobile technology industries are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent new product introductions. As we continue to grow our software as a service, mobile and other offerings, we must continue to innovate and develop new products and features to meet changing customer needs and attract and retain talented software developers. We need to continue to develop our skills, tools and capabilities to capitalize on existing and emerging technologies, which require us to devote significant resources.

A number of our businesses also derive a significant amount of their sales from one-time upfront license fees and rely on customer upgrades and service offerings to generate a significant portion of their revenues. In addition, our consumer and professional tax businesses depend significantly on revenue from customers who return each year to use our updated tax preparation and filing software and services. As our existing products mature, encouraging customers to purchase product upgrades becomes more challenging unless new product releases provide features and functionality that have meaningful incremental value. If we are not able to develop and clearly demonstrate the value of new or upgraded products or services to our customers, our revenues may be harmed. In addition, as we continue to introduce and expand our new business models, including offerings that are subscription-based or that are free to end users, we may be unsuccessful in monetizing or increasing customer adoption of these offerings.

The number of people who access products and services through devices other than personal computers, including mobile phones, smartphones, and handheld computers such as tablets, continues to increase. We have devoted significant resources to

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develop products and services for users of these alternative devices, but the versions of our products and services developed for these devices may not be compelling to users. Even if we are able to attract new users through these mobile offerings, the amount of revenue that we derive per user from mobile offerings may be less than the revenue that we have historically derived from users of personal computers. As new devices and new platforms are continually being released, it is difficult to predict the problems we may encounter in developing versions of our products and services for use on these alternative devices and we may need to devote significant resources to the creation, support, and maintenance of such offerings. If we are slow to develop products and technologies that are compatible with these alternative devices, or if our competitors are able to achieve those results more quickly than us, we will fail to capture a significant share of an increasingly important portion of the market for online services, which could adversely affect our business.

In some cases, we may expend a significant amount of resources and management attention on offerings that do not ultimately succeed in their markets. We have encountered difficulty in launching new products and services in the past. If we misjudge customer needs in the future, our new products and services may not succeed and our revenues and earnings may be harmed. We have also invested, and in the future expect to invest, in new business models, geographies, strategies and initiatives. Such endeavors may involve significant risks and uncertainties, including distraction of management from current operations, expenses associated with the initiatives and inadequate return on investments. Because these new initiatives are inherently risky, they may not be successful and may harm our financial condition and operating results.

Business interruption or failure of our information technology and communication systems may impair the availability of our products and services, which may damage our reputation and harm our future financial results.

As we continue to transition our business to more connected services, we become more dependent on the continuing operation and availability of our information technology and communication systems and those of our external service providers, including, for example, third party Internet-based or “cloud” computing services. We do not have redundancy for all of our systems, many of our critical applications reside in only one of our data centers, and our disaster recovery planning may not account for all eventualities. In the event of significant system disruption we may experience loss of data or processing capabilities, which may cause us to lose customers and may materially harm our reputation and our operating results. In addition, we are in the process of updating our customer facing applications and the supporting information technology infrastructure to meet our customers’ expectations for continuous service availability. Any difficulties in upgrading these applications or infrastructure or failure of our systems or those of our third-party service providers may result in interruptions in our service, which may reduce our revenues and profits, cause us to lose customers and damage our reputation. Any prolonged interruptions at any time may result in lost customers, additional refunds of customer charges, negative publicity and increased operating costs, any of which may significantly harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are in the process of migrating our applications and infrastructure to new data centers and to third party hosted environments. If we do not execute the transition to these new environments in an effective manner, we may experience unplanned service disruptions or unforeseen increases in costs which may harm our operating results and our business.

Our business operations, data centers, information technology and communications systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, human error, malicious attacks, fire, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses, computer denial of service attacks, terrorist attacks and other events beyond our control. The majority of our activities, our corporate headquarters, our principal information technology systems, and other critical business operations are located near major seismic faults. We do not carry earthquake insurance for direct quake-related losses. Our future financial results may be materially harmed in the event of a major earthquake or other natural or man-made disaster.

We rely on internal systems and external systems maintained by manufacturers, distributors and other service providers to take and fulfill customer orders, handle customer service requests and host certain online activities. Any interruption or failure of our internal or external systems may prevent us or our service providers from accepting and fulfilling customer orders or cause company and customer data to be unintentionally disclosed. Our continuing efforts to upgrade and expand our network security and other information systems as well as our high-availability capabilities may be costly, and problems with the design or implementation of system enhancements may harm our business and our results of operations.

We host, collect, use and retain sensitive and personal customer information and data. A security breach resulting in third party access to this information and data could materially disrupt our businesses, result in the disclosure of confidential information, significantly damage our reputation and cause material losses.

We host, collect, use and retain large amounts of sensitive and personal customer information and data, including credit card information, tax return information, bank account numbers and passwords, personal and business financial data and transactions, social security numbers, healthcare information and payroll information. In addition, we collect and maintain

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sensitive and personal information of our employees in the ordinary course of our business. The volume of sensitive and personal information that we collect has been increasing and will continue to increase as we further transition our businesses to connected services. We and our vendors use commercially available security technologies to protect this information and data, and we also use security and business controls to limit access to and use of such sensitive and personal customer information and data. However, such measures cannot provide absolute security, and we have experienced instances in the past
where criminals, using stolen identity information obtained outside of our systems, have gained unauthorized and illegal access
to our customers’ data. As the accessibility of stolen identity information increases, we may experience additional instances of unauthorized and illegal access to our systems using our customers’ stolen identity information in the future. In addition, third parties may fraudulently induce employees, customers, or users to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our data or customers’ data. The security measures that we implement may not be able to prevent access to our systems from unauthorized users who have fraudulently obtained our customers’ personal information. In addition, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access change frequently and may be difficult to detect for long periods of time, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventive measures. A major breach of our security measures or those of third parties that provide hosting services or have access to our sensitive and personal customer information may have serious negative consequences for our businesses, including possible fines, penalties and damages, reduced customer demand for our services, material harm to our reputation and brands, further regulation and oversight by federal or state agencies, and loss of our ability to provide financial transaction services or accept and process customer credit card orders or tax returns.

From time to time, we detect, or receive notices from customers or public or private agencies that they have detected, vulnerabilities in our servers, our software or third-party software components that are distributed with our products or fraudulent activity by unauthorized persons utilizing our products with stolen customer identity information. The existence of such vulnerabilities or fraudulent activity, even if they do not result in a security breach, may undermine customer confidence as well as the confidence of government agencies that we rely on to ensure that we can implement our offerings and require substantial resources to address, and we may not be able to discover or remediate such security vulnerabilities before they are exploited. In addition, our technologies, systems, and networks and our customers’ devices have been subject to, and are likely to continue to be the target of, cyber attacks, computer viruses, worms, phishing attacks, malicious software programs and other information security breaches that could result in the unauthorized release, gathering, monitoring, misuse, loss or destruction of our customers’ sensitive and personal information and data, or otherwise disrupt our or our customers’ or other third parties’ business operations. Although this is an industry-wide problem that affects software across platforms, it is increasingly affecting our offerings because cybercriminals tend to focus their efforts on well-known offerings that are popular among customers, and we expect them to continue to do so. If these cybercriminals are able to circumvent our security measures, or if we are unable to detect an intrusion into our systems and contain such intrusion in a reasonable amount of time, our customers’ sensitive and personal information and data may be compromised.

In addition, our employees, contractors, temporary and seasonal employees may have access to sensitive and personal information of our customers and employees. While we conduct background checks of our employees and these other individuals and limit access to systems and data, it is possible that one or more of these individuals may circumvent these controls, resulting in a security breach. In addition, we rely on third party vendors to host certain of our sensitive and personal information and data. While we conduct due diligence on these third party partners with respect to their security and business controls, we may not have the ability to effectively monitor or oversee the implementation of these controls measures, and, in any event, individuals or third parties may be able to circumvent and/or exploit vulnerabilities that may exist in these security and business controls, resulting in a loss of sensitive and personal customer or employee information and data.

If we are unable to develop, manage and maintain critical third party business relationships, our business may be adversely affected.

Our growth is dependent on the strength of our business relationships and our ability to continue to develop, maintain and leverage new and existing relationships. We rely on various third party partners, including software and service providers, suppliers, vendors, manufacturers, distributors, contractors, financial institutions, core processors, licensing partners and development partners, among others, in many areas of our business in order to deliver our offerings and operate our business. We also rely on third parties to support the operation of our business by maintaining our physical facilities, equipment, power systems and infrastructure. In certain instances, these third party relationships are sole source or limited source relationships and can be difficult to replace or substitute depending on the level of integration of the third party’s products or services into, or with, our offerings and/or the general availability of such third party’s products and services. In addition, there may be few or no alternative third party providers or vendors in the market. Further, there can be no assurance that we will be able to adequately retain third party contractors engaged to help us operate our business. The failure of third parties to provide acceptable and high quality products, services and technologies or to update their products, services and technologies may result in a disruption to our business operations and our customers, which may reduce our revenues and profits, cause us to lose

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customers and damage our reputation. Alternative arrangements and services may not be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or we may experience business interruptions upon a transition to an alternative partner.

In particular, we have relationships with banks, credit unions and other financial institutions that support certain critical services we offer to our customers. If macroeconomic conditions or other factors cause any of these institutions to fail, consolidate, stop providing certain services or institute cost-cutting efforts, our business and financial results may suffer and we may be unable to offer those services to our customers.

We have also started to increasingly utilize the distribution platforms of third parties like Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store for the distribution of certain of our product offerings. Although we benefit from the strong brand recognition and large user base of these distribution platforms to attract new customers, the platform owners have wide discretion to change the pricing structure, terms of service and other policies with respect to us and other developers. Any adverse changes by these third parties could adversely affect our financial results.

Increased government regulation of our businesses may harm our operating results.

The Company is subject to federal, state and local laws and regulations that affect the Company’s activities, including, without limitation, areas of labor, advertising, tax, financial services, data privacy and security requirements, digital content, consumer protection, real estate, billing, e-commerce, promotions, quality of services, intellectual property ownership and infringement, import and export requirements, anti-corruption, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, anti-competition, environmental, health and safety. There have been significant new regulations and heightened focus by the government on many of these areas, as well as in areas such as insurance and healthcare (including, for example, the Affordable Care Act). As we expand our products and services and revise our business models, both domestically and internationally, we may become subject to additional government regulation or increased regulatory scrutiny. Further, regulators may adopt new laws or regulations or their interpretation of existing laws or regulations may differ from ours as well as the laws of other jurisdictions in which we operate. These regulatory requirements could impose significant limitations, require changes to our business, require notification to customers or employees of a security breach, restrict our use of personal information, or cause changes in customer purchasing behavior which may make our business more costly, less efficient or impossible to conduct, and may require us to modify our current or future products or services, which may harm our future financial results. For example, as our business continues to expand to new industry segments that may be more highly regulated for privacy and data security, and to countries outside the United States that have more strict data protection laws, our compliance requirements and costs may increase. We have incurred – and may continue to incur – significant expenses to comply with mandatory privacy and security standards and protocols imposed by law, regulation, industry standards or contractual obligations.

The tax preparation industry continues to receive heightened attention from federal and state governments. New legislation, regulation, public policy considerations, changes in the cybersecurity environment, litigation by the government or private entities, or new interpretations of existing laws may result in greater oversight of the tax preparation industry, restrict the types of products and services that we can offer or the prices we can charge, or otherwise cause us to change the way we operate our tax businesses or offer our tax products and services. We may not be able to respond quickly to such regulatory, legislative and other developments, and these changes may in turn increase our cost of doing business and limit our revenue opportunities. In addition, if our practices are not consistent with new interpretations of existing laws, we may become subject to lawsuits, penalties, and other liabilities that did not previously apply. We are also required to comply with a variety of state revenue agency standards in order to successfully operate our tax preparation and electronic filing services. Changes in state-imposed requirements by one or more of the states, including the required use of specific technologies or technology standards, may significantly increase the costs of providing those services to our customers and may prevent us from delivering a quality product to our customers in a timely manner.

If we fail to process transactions effectively or fail to adequately protect against disputed or potential fraudulent activities, our revenue and earnings may be harmed.

Our operations process a significant volume and dollar value of transactions on a daily basis, especially in our payroll and payments businesses. Due to the size and volume of transactions that we handle, effective processing systems and controls are essential to ensure that transactions are handled appropriately. Despite our efforts, it is possible that we may make errors or that funds may be misappropriated due to fraud. The systems supporting our business are comprised of multiple technology platforms that are difficult to scale. If we are unable to effectively manage our systems and processes we may be unable to process customer data in an accurate, reliable and timely manner, which may harm our business. In our payments processing service business if merchants for whom we process payment transactions are unable to pay refunds due to their customers in connection with disputed or fraudulent merchant transactions, we may be required to pay those amounts and our payments may exceed the amount of the customer reserves we have established to make such payments.

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If we are unable to effectively combat the increasing amount and sophistication of fraudulent activities by third parties using our offerings, we may lose the confidence of our customers and government agencies and our revenues and earnings may be harmed.

The online tax preparation, payroll administration and online payments industries have been experiencing an increasing amount of fraudulent activities by third parties, and those fraudulent activities are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Although we do not believe that any of this activity is uniquely targeted at our products or business, this type of fraudulent activity may adversely impact our consumer tax, payroll, and payments businesses. In addition to any direct damages and potential fines that may result from such fraud, which may be substantial, a loss of confidence by our customers or by governmental agencies in our ability to prevent fraudulent activity that is perpetrated through our offerings may seriously harm our business and damage our brand. If we cannot adequately combat such fraudulent activity that is perpetrated through our tax offerings, state or federal tax authorities may refuse to allow us to continue to process our customers’ tax returns electronically, resulting in a significant adverse impact on our earnings and revenue. As fraudulent activities become more pervasive and increasingly sophisticated, and fraud detection and prevention measures must become correspondingly more complex to combat them across the various industries in which we operate, we may implement risk control mechanisms that could make it more difficult for legitimate customers to obtain and use our products, which could result in lost revenue and negatively impact our earnings.
 
Third parties claiming that we infringe their proprietary rights may cause us to incur significant legal expenses and prevent us from selling our products.

We may become increasingly subject to infringement claims, including patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark infringement claims. Litigation may be necessary to determine the validity and scope of the intellectual property rights of others. We have received a number of allegations of intellectual property infringement claims in the past and expect to receive more claims in the future based on allegations that our offerings infringe upon the intellectual property held by third parties. Some of these claims are the subject of pending litigation against us and against some of our customers. These claims may involve patent holding companies or other adverse intellectual property owners who have no relevant product revenues of their own, and against whom our own intellectual property may provide little or no deterrence. The ultimate outcome of any allegation is uncertain and, regardless of outcome, any such claim, with or without merit, may be time consuming to defend, result in costly litigation, divert management’s time and attention from our business, require us to stop selling, delay shipping or redesign our products, or require us to pay monetary damages for royalty or licensing fees, or to satisfy indemnification obligations that we have with some of our customers. Our failure to obtain necessary license or other rights, or litigation arising out of intellectual property claims may harm our business.

We rely on third party intellectual property in our products and services.

Many of our products and services include intellectual property of third parties, which we license under agreements that may need to be renewed or renegotiated from time to time. We may not be able to obtain licenses to these third party technologies or content on reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to obtain the rights necessary to use this intellectual property in our products and services, we may not be able to sell the affected offerings and customers who are currently using the affected product may be disrupted, which may in turn harm our future financial results, damage our brand, and result in customer loss. Also, we and our customers have been and may continue to be subject to infringement claims as a result of the third party intellectual property incorporated in to our offerings. Although we try to mitigate this risk and we may not be ultimately liable for any potential infringement, pending claims require us to use significant resources, require management attention and could result in loss of customers.

Some of our offerings include third-party software that is licensed under so-called “open source” licenses, some of which may include a requirement that, under certain circumstances, we make available, or grant licenses to, any modifications or derivative works we create based upon the open source software. Although we have established internal review and approval processes to mitigate these risks, we may not be sure that all open source software is submitted for approval prior to use in our products. Many of the risks associated with usage of open source may not be eliminated, and may, if not properly addressed, harm our business.

Our intellectual property rights are valuable, and any inability to protect them could reduce the value of our products, services, and brand.

Our patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights and other intellectual property rights are important assets for us. We aggressively protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights in the U.S. and internationally, as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary rights in products and services. The efforts that we take to protect our proprietary rights may not always be

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sufficient or effective. Protecting our intellectual property rights is costly and time consuming and may not be successful in every location. Any significant impairment of our intellectual property rights could harm our business, our brand and our ability to compete.

Policing unauthorized use and copying of our products is difficult, expensive, and time consuming. Current U.S. laws that prohibit copying give us only limited practical protection from software piracy and the laws of many other countries provide very little protection. We frequently encounter unauthorized copies of our software being sold through online marketplaces. Although we continue to evaluate and put in place technology solutions to attempt to lessen the impact of piracy and engage in efforts to educate consumers and public policy leaders on these issues and cooperate with industry groups in their efforts to combat piracy, we expect piracy to be a persistent problem that results in lost revenues and increased expenses.

Because competition for our key employees is intense, we may not be able to attract, retain and develop the highly skilled employees we need to support our planned growth.

Much of our future success depends on the continued service and availability of skilled personnel, including members of our executive team, and those in technical, marketing and staff positions. Experienced personnel in the software, mobile technologies, data science, data security, and software as a service industries are in high demand and competition for their talents is intense, especially in California and India, where the majority of our employees are located. Also, as we strive to continue to adapt to technological change and introduce new and enhanced products and business models, we must be able to secure, maintain and develop the right quality and quantity of engaged and committed talent. Although we strive to be an employer of choice, we may not be able to continue to successfully attract, retain and develop key personnel which may cause our business to suffer.

The nature of our products and services necessitates timely product launches and if we experience significant product quality problems or delays, it may harm our revenue, earnings and reputation.

All of our tax products and many of our non-tax products have rigid development timetables that increase the risk of errors in our products and the risk of launch delays. Our tax preparation software product development cycle is particularly challenging due to the need to incorporate unpredictable tax law and tax form changes each year and because our customers expect high levels of accuracy and a timely launch of these products to prepare and file their taxes by the tax filing deadline. Due to the complexity of our products and the condensed development cycles under which we operate, our products sometimes contain glitches that may unexpectedly interfere with the operation of the software. The complexity of our products may also make it difficult for us to consistently deliver offerings that contain the features, functionality and level of accuracy that our customers expect. When we encounter problems we may be required to modify our code, distribute patches to customers who have already purchased the product and recall or repackage existing product inventory in our distribution channels. If we encounter development challenges or discover errors in our products late in our development cycle it may cause us to delay our product launch date. Any major defects or launch delays may lead to loss of customers and revenue, negative publicity, customer and employee dissatisfaction, reduced retailer shelf space and promotions, and increased operating expenses, such as inventory replacement costs, legal fees or payments resulting from our commitment to reimburse penalties and interest paid by customers due solely to calculation errors in our consumer tax preparation products.

Our businesses are highly seasonal and our quarterly results could fluctuate significantly.

Our Consumer Tax, Professional Tax, and QuickBooks offerings have significant and distinct seasonal patterns. This has caused significant fluctuations in our quarterly financial results. Sales of income tax preparation products and services are heavily concentrated from November through April. Revenue from our QuickBooks offerings tends to be highest around calendar year end, during our second and third fiscal quarters. These seasonal patterns mean that our total net revenue is usually highest during the second and third fiscal quarters ending January 31 and April 30. We typically experience lower total net revenues, and operating losses, in the first and fourth fiscal quarters ending October 31 and July 31. In the near term we expect the seasonality of our overall business to continue. In the longer term we expect the seasonality of certain of our businesses to diminish due to our decision to deliver ongoing enhancements and certain connected services for desktop offerings sold after fiscal 2014 and due to increasing customer preference for online and subscription versions of our offerings, but we expect the seasonality of certain other businesses, particularly our consumer and professional tax businesses, to continue. Our financial results may also fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year due to a variety of factors, including factors that may affect the timing of revenue recognition. These include changes to our offerings that result in the inclusion or exclusion of ongoing services; changes in product pricing strategies or product sales mix; the timing of the availability of federal and state tax forms from taxing agencies and the ability of those agencies to receive electronic tax return submissions; changes in consumer behavior; and the timing of our discontinuation of support for older product offerings. Other factors that may affect our quarterly or annual financial results include the timing of acquisitions, divestitures, and goodwill and acquired intangible asset impairment charges. Any fluctuations in our operating results may adversely affect our stock price.

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We are frequently a party to litigation and regulatory inquiries which could result in an unfavorable outcome and have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operation and cash flows.

We are subject to various legal proceedings (including class action lawsuits), claims and regulatory inquiries that have arisen out of the ordinary conduct of our business and are not yet resolved and additional claims and inquiries may arise in the future. The number and significance of these claims and inquiries have increased as our businesses have evolved. Any proceedings, claims or inquiries initiated by or against us, whether successful or not, may be time consuming; result in costly litigation, damage awards, consent decrees, injunctive relief or increased costs of business; require us to change our business practices or products; require significant amounts of management time; result in diversion of significant operations resources; or otherwise harm our business and future financial results.

Adverse global economic conditions could harm our business and financial condition.

Adverse macroeconomic developments could negatively affect our business and financial condition. Adverse global economic events have caused, and could, in the future, cause disruptions and volatility in global financial markets and increased rates of default and bankruptcy, and could impact consumer and small business spending. In particular, because the majority of our revenue is derived from sales within the U.S., economic conditions in the U.S. have an even greater impact on us than companies with a more diverse international presence. Challenging economic times could cause potential new customers not to purchase or to delay purchasing of our products and services, and could cause our existing customers to discontinue purchasing or delay upgrades of our existing products and services, thereby negatively impacting our revenues and future financial results. Decreased consumer spending levels could also reduce credit and debit card transaction processing volumes causing reductions in our payments revenue. Poor economic conditions and high unemployment have caused, and could in the future cause, a significant decrease in the number of tax returns filed, which may have a significant effect on the number of tax returns we prepare and file. In addition, weakness in the end-user consumer and small business markets could negatively affect the cash flow of our distributors and resellers who could, in turn, delay paying their obligations to us, which could increase our credit risk exposure and cause delays in our recognition of revenue or future sales to these customers. Any of these events could harm our business and our future financial results.

We regularly invest resources to update and improve our internal information technology systems and software platforms. Should our investments not succeed, or if delays or other issues with new or existing internal technology systems and software platforms disrupt our operations, our business could be harmed.

We rely on our network and data center infrastructure and internal technology systems for many of our development, marketing, operational, support, sales, accounting and financial reporting activities. We are continually investing resources to update and improve these systems and environments in order to meet existing, as well as the growing and changing requirements of our business and customers. If we experience prolonged delays or unforeseen difficulties in updating and upgrading our systems and architecture, we may experience outages and may not be able to deliver certain offerings and develop new offerings and enhancements that we need to remain competitive. Such improvements and upgrades are often complex, costly and time consuming. In addition such improvements can be challenging to integrate with our existing technology systems, or may uncover problems with our existing technology systems. Unsuccessful implementation of hardware or software updates and improvements could result in outages, disruption in our business operations, loss of revenue or damage to our reputation.

Our international operations are subject to increased risks which may harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.

In addition to uncertainty about our ability to generate revenues from our foreign operations and expand into international markets, there are risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:
different or more restrictive privacy, data protection and other laws that could require us to make changes to our products, services and operations;
difficulties in developing, staffing, and simultaneously managing a large number of varying foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences;
stringent local labor laws and regulations;
credit risk and higher levels of payment fraud;
profit repatriation restrictions, and foreign currency exchange restrictions;
geopolitical events, including natural disasters, acts of war and terrorism;

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import or export regulations;
compliance with U.S. laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials;
antitrust and competition regulations;
potentially adverse tax developments;
economic uncertainties relating to European sovereign and other debt;
trade barriers and changes in trade regulations;
political or social unrest, economic instability, repression, or human rights issues; and
risks related to other government regulation or required compliance with local laws.
Violations of the complex foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that apply to our international operations may result in fines, criminal actions or sanctions against us, our officers or our employees, prohibitions on the conduct of our business and damage to our reputation. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to promote compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors or agents will not violate our policies. These risks inherent in our international operations and expansion increase our costs of doing business internationally and may result in harm to our business, operating results, and financial condition.

If actual product returns exceed returns reserves our future financial results may be harmed.

We ship more desktop software products to our distributors and retailers than we expect them to sell, in order to reduce the risk that distributors or retailers may run out of products. This is particularly true for our Consumer Tax products, which have a short selling season and for which returns occur primarily in our fiscal third and fourth quarters. Like many software companies that sell their products through distributors and retailers, we have historically accepted significant product returns. We establish reserves against revenue for product returns in our financial statements based on estimated returns and we closely monitor product sales and inventory in the retail channel in an effort to maintain adequate reserves. In the past, returns have not differed significantly from these reserves. However, if we experience actual returns that significantly exceed reserves, it may result in lower net revenue.

Unanticipated changes in our income tax rates may affect our future financial results.

Our future effective income tax rates may be favorably or unfavorably affected by unanticipated changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, or by changes in tax laws or their interpretation. In addition, we are subject to the continuous examination of our income tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from these examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. These continuous examinations may result in unforeseen tax-related liabilities, which may harm our future financial results.

Amortization of acquired intangible assets and impairment charges may cause significant fluctuation in our net income.

Our acquisitions have resulted in significant expenses, including amortization and impairment of acquired technology and other acquired intangible assets, and impairment of goodwill. Total costs and expenses in these categories were approximately $339 million in fiscal 2015, $25 million in fiscal 2014, and $76 million in fiscal 2013. Although under current accounting rules goodwill is not amortized, we may incur impairment charges related to the goodwill already recorded and to goodwill arising out of future acquisitions. We test the impairment of goodwill annually in our fourth fiscal quarter or more frequently if indicators of impairment arise. The timing of the formal annual test may result in charges to our statement of operations in our fourth fiscal quarter that may not have been reasonably foreseen in prior periods. The total costs and expenses for fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2013 included goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges of $297 million and $46 million. At July 31, 2015, we had $1.3 billion in goodwill and $87 million in net acquired intangible assets on our balance sheet, both of which may be subject to impairment charges in the future. New acquisitions, and any impairment of the value of acquired intangible assets, may have a significant negative impact on our future financial results.


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Our acquisition and divestiture activities may disrupt our ongoing business, may involve increased expenses and may present risks not contemplated at the time of the transactions.

We have acquired and may continue to acquire companies, products and technologies that complement our strategic direction. Acquisitions involve significant risks and uncertainties, including:
inability to successfully integrate the acquired technology and operations into our business and maintain uniform standards, controls, policies, and procedures;
inability to realize synergies expected to result from an acquisition;
disruption of our ongoing business and distraction of management;
challenges retaining the key employees, customers, resellers and other business partners of the acquired operation;
the internal control environment of an acquired entity may not be consistent with our standards and may require significant time and resources to improve;
unidentified issues not discovered in our due diligence process, including product or service quality issues, intellectual property issues and legal contingencies;
failure to successfully further develop an acquired business or technology and any resulting impairment of amounts currently capitalized as intangible assets;
in the case of foreign acquisitions and investments, the impact of particular economic, tax, currency, political, legal and regulatory risks associated with specific countries.
We have divested and may in the future divest certain assets or businesses that no longer fit with our strategic direction or growth targets. Divestitures involve significant risks and uncertainties, including:
inability to find potential buyers on favorable terms;
failure to effectively transfer liabilities, contracts, facilities and employees to buyers;
requirements that we retain or indemnify buyers against certain liabilities and obligations in connection with any such divestiture;
the possibility that we will become subject to third-party claims arising out of such divestiture;
challenges in identifying and separating the intellectual properties to be divested from the intellectual properties that we wish to retain;
inability to reduce fixed costs previously associated with the divested assets or business;
challenges in collecting the proceeds from any divestiture;
disruption of our ongoing business and distraction of management;
loss of key employees who leave the Company as a result of a divestiture;
if customers or partners of the divested business do not receive the same level of service from the new owners, our other businesses may be adversely affected, to the extent that these customers or partners also purchase other products offered by us or otherwise conduct business with our retained business.
Because acquisitions and divestitures are inherently risky, our transactions may not be successful and may, in some cases, harm our operating results or financial condition. Although we typically fund our acquisitions through cash available from operations, if we were to use debt to fund acquisitions or for other purposes, our interest expense and leverage would increase significantly, and if we were to issue equity securities as consideration in an acquisition, current shareholders’ percentage ownership and earnings per share would be diluted.

We have $500 million in debt outstanding and may incur other debt in the future, which may adversely affect our financial condition and future financial results.

In fiscal 2007 we issued $500 million in senior unsecured notes due in March 2017. As the debt matures, we will have to expend significant resources to either repay or refinance these notes. If we decide to refinance the notes, we may be required to do so on different or less favorable terms or we may be unable to refinance the notes at all, both of which may adversely affect our financial condition.


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We also have a $500 million five-year revolving credit facility. We may use the proceeds of any advances against the credit facility for general corporate purposes, including future acquisitions and share repurchases.

This debt may adversely affect our financial condition and future financial results by, among other things:
increasing our vulnerability to downturns in our business, to competitive pressures and to adverse economic and industry conditions;
requiring the dedication of a portion of our expected cash from operations to service our indebtedness, thereby reducing the amount of expected cash flow available for other purposes, including capital expenditures and acquisitions; and
limiting our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our businesses and our industries.
Our current revolving credit facility imposes restrictions on us, including restrictions on our ability to create liens on our assets and the ability of our subsidiaries to incur indebtedness, and require us to maintain compliance with specified financial ratios. Our ability to comply with these ratios may be affected by events beyond our control. In addition, our short- and long-term debt includes covenants that may adversely affect our ability to incur certain liens or engage in certain types of sale and leaseback transactions. If we breach any of the covenants under our short- and long-term debt or our revolving credit facility and do not obtain a waiver from the lenders, then, subject to applicable cure periods, any outstanding indebtedness may be declared immediately due and payable.

In addition, changes by any rating agency to our credit rating may negatively impact the value and liquidity of both our debt and equity securities. If our credit ratings are downgraded or other negative action is taken, the interest rate payable by us under our revolving credit facility may increase. In addition, any downgrades in our credit ratings may affect our ability to obtain additional financing in the future and may affect the terms of any such financing.

We are subject to risks associated with information disseminated through our services.

The laws relating to the liability of online services companies for information such as online content disseminated through their services are subject to frequent challenges. In spite of settled law in the U.S., claims are made against online services companies by parties who disagree with the content. Where our online content is accessed on the internet outside of the U.S., challenges may be brought under foreign laws which do not provide the same protections for online services companies as in the U.S. These challenges in either U.S. or foreign jurisdictions may rise to legal claims alleging defamation, libel, invasion of privacy, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement, or other theories based on the nature and content of the materials disseminated through the services. Certain of our services include content generated by users of our online services. Although this content is not generated by us, claims of defamation or other injury may be made against us for that content. Any costs incurred as a result of this potential liability may harm our business.

Our stock price may be volatile and your investment could lose value.
Our stock price is subject to changes in recommendations or earnings estimates by financial analysts, changes in investors’ or analysts’ valuation measures for our stock, our credit ratings and market trends unrelated to our performance. Furthermore, speculation in the press or investment community about our strategic position, financial condition, results of operations, business or security of our products, can cause changes in our stock price. These factors, as well as general economic and political conditions and the timing of announcements in the public market regarding new products, product enhancements or technological advances by our competitors or us, and any announcements by us of acquisitions, major transactions, or management changes may adversely affect our stock price. Further, any changes in the amounts or frequency of share repurchases or dividends may also adversely affect our stock price. A significant drop in our stock price could expose us to the risk of securities class actions lawsuits, which may result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources, which may adversely affect our business.

Our business depends on our strong reputation and the value of our brands.

Developing and maintaining awareness of our brands is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our existing and future products and services and is an important element in attracting new customers. Adverse publicity (whether or not justified) relating to events or activities attributed to us, our employees or agents may tarnish our reputation and reduce the value of our brands. Damage to our reputation and loss of brand equity may reduce demand for our products and services and thus have an adverse effect on our future financial results, as well as require additional resources to rebuild our reputation and restore the value of the brands.



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ITEM 1B
UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.


ITEM 2
PROPERTIES

Our principal locations, their purposes and the expiration dates for the leases on facilities at those locations as of July 31, 2015 are shown in the table below. We have renewal options on many of our leases.
Location
 
Purpose
 
Approximate
Square
Feet
 
Principal
Lease
Expiration
Dates
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mountain View and Menlo Park, California
 
Corporate headquarters and principal offices for Small Business segment
 
866,000
 
2024 - 2026
San Diego, California
 
Principal offices for Consumer Tax segment
 
466,000
 
2017
Bangalore, India
 
Principal offices for Intuit India
 
359,000
 
2015 - 2022
Quincy, Washington
 
Primary data center
 
240,000
 
Owned
San Francisco, California
 
Principal offices for Demandforce business
 
216,000
 
2015 - 2025
Woodland Hills, California
 
Principal offices for Small Business payment solutions business
 
168,000
 
2018
Plano, Texas
 
Principal offices for Professional Tax segment and data center
 
166,000
 
2026
We own buildings comprising approximately 169,000 square feet of the total square feet shown in the table above for our Mountain View and Menlo Park, California headquarters facility. We also lease or own facilities in a number of smaller domestic locations and internationally in Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, and several other locations. We believe our facilities are suitable and adequate for our current and near-term needs, and that we will be able to locate additional facilities as needed. See Note 9 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information about our lease commitments.


ITEM 3
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

Intuit has been contacted by regulatory authorities, including Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, the SEC, the Department of Justice and certain state Attorneys General, in connection with the increase during the 2015 tax season in attempts by criminals using stolen identity information to file fraudulent tax returns and claim refunds at the state and federal levels. Intuit is cooperating with all such government inquiries, including formal requests for information. In addition, we are the subject of certain actions, including putative class action lawsuits by individuals who claim to have suffered damages in connection with the foregoing events. We believe that the allegations contained within these lawsuits are without merit, and we intend to vigorously defend against them.

Intuit is subject to certain routine legal proceedings, including class action lawsuits like those described above, as well as demands, claims, government inquiries and threatened litigation, that arise in the normal course of our business, including assertions that we may be infringing patents or other intellectual property rights of others. We currently believe that, in addition to any amounts accrued, the amount of potential losses, if any, for any pending claims of any type (either alone or combined) will not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. The ultimate outcome of any litigation is uncertain and, regardless of outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on Intuit because of defense costs, negative publicity, diversion of management resources and other factors. Our failure to obtain necessary license or other rights, or litigation arising out of intellectual property claims could adversely affect our business.



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ITEM 4
MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

None.



PART II

ITEM 5
MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Information for Common Stock

Intuit’s common stock is quoted on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “INTU.” The following table shows the range of high and low sale prices reported on the NASDAQ Global Select Market for the periods indicated. The closing price of Intuit’s common stock on August 24, 2015 was $84.25.
 
High
 
Low
Fiscal year ended July 31, 2014
 
 
 
First quarter
$71.97
 
$61.50
Second quarter
77.78
 
70.81
Third quarter
82.40
 
69.02
Fourth quarter
83.54
 
73.50
 
 
 
 
Fiscal year ended July 31, 2015
 
 
 
First quarter
$88.84
 
$77.96
Second quarter
95.84
 
84.75
Third quarter
102.17
 
85.77
Fourth quarter
109.21
 
99.02
Stockholders
As of August 24, 2015 we had approximately 535 record holders and approximately 126,000 beneficial holders of our common stock.
Dividends
We declared and paid quarterly cash dividends that totaled $1.00 per share of outstanding common stock or $283 million during fiscal 2015; $0.76 per share of outstanding common stock or $220 million during fiscal 2014; and $0.68 per share of outstanding common stock or $203 million during fiscal 2013. In August 2015 our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share of outstanding common stock payable on October 19, 2015 to stockholders of record at the close of business on October 12, 2015. We currently expect to continue to pay comparable cash dividends on a quarterly basis in the future; however, future declarations of dividends and the establishment of future record dates and payment dates are subject to the final determination of our Board of Directors.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.



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Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

Stock repurchase activity during the three months ended July 31, 2015 was as follows:
Period
 
Total Number
of Shares
Purchased
 
Average
Price Paid
per Share
 
Total Number
of Shares
Purchased
as Part of
Publicly
Announced
Plans
 
Approximate
Dollar Value
of Shares
That May Yet
Be Purchased
Under
the Plans
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
May 1, 2015 through May 31, 2015
 
86,141

 
$99.85
 
86,141

 

$2,625,335,758

June 1, 2015 through June 30, 2015
 

 
$—
 

 

$2,625,335,758

July 1, 2015 through July 31, 2015
 

 
$—
 

 

$2,625,335,758

Total
 
86,141

 
$99.85
 
86,141

 
 
Note: All of the shares purchased as part of publicly announced plans during the three months ended July 31, 2015 were purchased under a plan we announced on August 19, 2013 under which we are authorized to repurchase up to $2 billion of our common stock from time to time over a four-year period ending on August 19, 2017. At July 31, 2015, authorization from our Board of Directors to expend up to $625 million remained available under that plan. On May 19, 2015 our Board approved a new stock repurchase program under which we are authorized to repurchase up to an additional $2 billion of our common stock from time to time over a four-year period ending on May 19, 2019.


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Company Stock Price Performance
The graph below compares the cumulative total stockholder return on Intuit common stock for the last five full fiscal years with the cumulative total returns on the S&P 500 Index and the Morgan Stanley Technology Index for the same period. The graph assumes that $100 was invested in Intuit common stock and in each of the other indices on July 31, 2010 and that all dividends were reinvested. Intuit did not pay cash dividends prior to fiscal 2012. The comparisons in the graph below are based on historical data – with Intuit common stock prices based on the closing price on the dates indicated – and are not intended to forecast the possible future performance of Intuit’s common stock.


 
July 31, 2010
 
July 31, 2011
 
July 31, 2012
 
July 31, 2013
 
July 31, 2014
 
July 31, 2015
Intuit Inc.
$
100.00

 
$
117.48

 
$
147.59

 
$
164.38

 
$
212.97

 
$
277.78

S&P 500
$
100.00

 
$
119.65

 
$
130.58

 
$
163.22

 
$
190.87

 
$
212.26

Morgan Stanley Technology Index
$
100.00

 
$
122.62

 
$
136.46

 
$
144.66

 
$
185.39

 
$
208.08


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ITEM 6
SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
The following tables show Intuit’s selected financial information for the past five fiscal years. The comparability of the information is affected by a variety of factors, including acquisitions and divestitures of businesses, issuance and repayment of long-term debt, share-based compensation expense, amortization of acquired technology and other acquired intangible assets, repurchases of common stock under our stock repurchase programs, and the payment of cash dividends.
In fiscal 2007 we issued $1 billion in senior notes and in fiscal 2012 we repaid $500 million of those notes when they became due using cash from operations. The remaining senior notes are due in March 2017. In fiscal 2011 through fiscal 2015 we acquired several companies and we have included the results of operations for each of them in our consolidated results of operations from their respective dates of acquisition.
In fiscal 2013 we completed the sale of our Intuit Websites business and in fiscal 2014 we completed the sales of our Intuit Financial Services and Intuit Health businesses. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 we determined that our Demandforce, QuickBase, and Quicken businesses became long-lived assets held for sale. We accounted for all of these businesses as discontinued operations and have therefore reclassified our statements of operations for all periods presented below to reflect them as such. We have also reclassified our balance sheets for all periods presented below to reflect Intuit Financial Services, Demandforce, QuickBase, and Quicken as discontinued operations. The net assets of Intuit Websites and Intuit Health were not significant, so we have not reclassified our balance sheets for any period presented below to reflect them as discontinued operations.
To better understand the information in these tables, investors should read “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 of this Annual Report, and the financial statements and related notes in Item 8 of this Annual Report, especially Note 7, “Discontinued Operations.”

Consolidated Statement of Operations Data
Fiscal
(In millions, except per share amounts)
2015
 
2014
 
2013
 
2012
 
2011
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total net revenue
$
4,192

 
$
4,243

 
$
3,946

 
$
3,662

 
$
3,303

Total costs and expenses
3,454

 
2,943

 
2,738

 
2,546

 
2,299

Operating income from continuing operations
738

 
1,300

 
1,208

 
1,116

 
1,004

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total share-based compensation expense included in total costs and expenses
242

 
186

 
166

 
154

 
142

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income from continuing operations
413

 
853

 
807

 
730

 
639

Net income (loss) from discontinued operations
(48
)
 
54

 
51

 
62

 
(5
)
Net income
365

 
907

 
858

 
792

 
634

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income per common share:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic net income per share from continuing operations
$
1.47

 
$
2.99

 
$
2.72

 
$
2.46

 
$
2.08

Basic net income (loss) per share from discontinued operations
(0.17
)
 
0.19

 
0.17

 
0.21

 
(0.02
)
Basic net income per share
$
1.30

 
$
3.18

 
$
2.89

 
$
2.67

 
$
2.06

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Diluted net income per share from continuing operations
$
1.45

 
$
2.94

 
$
2.66

 
$
2.40

 
$
2.01

Diluted net income (loss) per share from discontinued operations
(0.17
)
 
0.18

 
0.17

 
0.20

 
(0.01
)
Diluted net income per share
$
1.28

 
$
3.12

 
$
2.83

 
$
2.60

 
$
2.00

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dividends declared per common share
$
1.00

 
$
0.76

 
$
0.68

 
$
0.60

 
$



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Consolidated Balance Sheet Data
At July 31,
(In millions)
2015
 
2014
 
2013
 
2012
 
2011
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cash, cash equivalents and investments
$
1,697

 
$
1,914

 
$
1,661

 
$
744

 
$
1,421

Long-term investments
27

 
31

 
83

 
75

 
63

Working capital
816

 
1,200

 
1,116

 
258

 
449

Total assets
4,968

 
5,201

 
5,486

 
4,684

 
5,110

Current portion of long-term debt

 

 

 

 
500

Long-term debt
500

 
499

 
499

 
499

 
499

Other long-term obligations
172

 
166

 
135

 
135

 
151

Total stockholders’ equity
2,332

 
3,078

 
3,531

 
2,744

 
2,616


ITEM 7
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) includes the following sections:
Executive Overview that discusses at a high level our operating results and some of the trends that affect our business.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates that we believe are important to understanding the assumptions and judgments underlying our financial statements.
Results of Operations that includes a more detailed discussion of our revenue and expenses.
Liquidity and Capital Resources which discusses key aspects of our statements of cash flows, changes in our balance sheets and our financial commitments.
You should note that this MD&A discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Please see the section entitled “Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors” at the beginning of Item 1A for important information to consider when evaluating such statements.
You should read this MD&A in conjunction with the financial statements and related notes in Item 8 of this Annual Report. In fiscal 2014 we acquired Check Inc. We have included their results of operations in our consolidated results of operations from the date of acquisition.
In fiscal 2013 we completed the sale of our Intuit Websites business and in fiscal 2014 we completed the sales of our Intuit Financial Services (IFS) and Intuit Health businesses. In the fourth quarter fiscal 2015 we determined that our Demandforce, QuickBase, and Quicken businesses became long-lived assets held for sale. We accounted for all of these businesses as discontinued operations and have therefore reclassified our statements of operations and balance sheets for all periods presented to reflect them as such. Because the cash flows of these discontinued operations were not material for any period presented, we have not segregated the cash flows of those businesses from continuing operations on our statements of cash flows. See “Results of Operations – Non-Operating Income and Expense – Discontinued Operations” later in this Item 7 for more information. Unless otherwise noted, the following discussion pertains to our continuing operations.
Executive Overview
This overview provides a high level discussion of our operating results and some of the trends that affect our business. We believe that an understanding of these trends is important in order to understand our financial results for fiscal 2015 as well as our future prospects. This summary is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is it intended to be a substitute for the detailed discussion and analysis provided elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Industry Trends and Seasonality
Industry Trends
The industry in which we operate is dynamic and highly competitive, and we expect it to remain so in the future. The markets for software and related services, especially highly-available connected services, are characterized by rapid technological change, shifting customer needs, and frequent new product introductions and enhancements. Competitive interest and expertise

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in many of the markets we serve have grown markedly over the past few years and we expect this trend to continue. There are also large, cloud-based service companies who innovate quickly and serve small businesses and consumers. While today our competition with such companies may be limited, as we and those companies grow, our competition with them may increase. In recent years the widespread availability of the Internet, the emergence of mobile devices, and the explosion of social media have accelerated the pace of change and revolutionized the way that people throughout the world manage important financial tasks. The result is a global market that is shifting from traditional services that are paper-based, human-produced, and brick-and-mortar bound, to one where people understand, demand, and embrace the benefits of connected services. This trend toward connected services is the primary driver of the strategies in all of our businesses.
Seasonality
Our Consumer Tax, Professional Tax, and QuickBooks offerings have significant and distinct seasonal patterns. As a result, our total net revenue is usually highest during our second quarter ending January 31 and third quarter ending April 30. We typically report losses in our first quarter ending October 31 and fourth quarter ending July 31, when our total net revenue is lower but core operating expenses such as research and development continue at relatively consistent levels. Although the seasonal patterns for all three of our reporting segments continue to evolve as described below, we expect the overall seasonality of our business to continue to have a significant impact on our quarterly financial results in the future.
Our Consumer Tax and Professional Tax offerings are highly seasonal. Sales of income tax preparation products and services are heavily concentrated from November through April. In addition, an increasing proportion of our Consumer Tax revenue has been shifting to later in this seasonal period and we expect that trend to continue in the future. This is due in part to the growth in sales of TurboTax Online, for which we recognize revenue toward the end of the tax preparation process, when tax returns are printed or electronically filed. The seasonality of our Consumer Tax and Professional Tax revenue is also affected by the timing of the availability of tax forms from taxing agencies and the ability of those agencies to receive electronic tax return submissions. Delays in the availability of tax forms or the ability of taxing agencies to receive submissions can cause Consumer Tax and Professional Tax revenue to shift between our fiscal quarters. In fiscal 2015 we began delivering ongoing enhancements and certain connected services for our Professional Tax desktop software offerings. As a result of this change, we recognize revenue for these offerings as services are provided through the end of each calendar year.
In our Small Business segment, prior to fiscal 2015 we launched annual releases of our QuickBooks desktop software products each fall and revenue for those products tended to be highest around calendar year end, during our second and third fiscal quarters. Starting with QuickBooks 2015, which was released in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, we began delivering ongoing enhancements and certain connected services for our QuickBooks desktop software products. As a result of this change, we recognize revenue for these QuickBooks desktop products as services are provided over approximately three years. Customers are also increasingly choosing the online and subscription versions of our QuickBooks offerings, for which we recognize revenue as the services are provided. Customer acquisition for these offerings tends to be highest around calendar year end, during our second and third fiscal quarters. For these reasons, the seasonality of our Small Business segment revenue has started to become less pronounced and we expect that trend to continue in the future.
Key Challenges and Risks
Our growth strategy depends upon our ability to initiate and embrace disruptive technology trends, to enter new markets, and to drive broad adoption of the products and services we develop and market. Our future growth also increasingly depends on the strength of our third-party business relationships and our ability to continue to develop, maintain and strengthen new and existing relationships. To remain competitive and continue to grow, we are investing significant resources in our product development, marketing, and sales capabilities, and we expect to continue to do so in the future.
As we continue transitioning to offer more connected services, the ongoing operation and availability of our information technology and communication systems and those of our external service providers is becoming increasingly important. Because we help customers manage their financial lives, we face risks associated with the hosting, collection, use and retention of personal customer information and data. We are investing significant management attention and resources in our information technology infrastructure and in our privacy and security capabilities, and we expect to continue to do so in the future.
During this tax season, state taxing authorities, the IRS, and the tax preparation industry experienced an increase in attempts by criminals using stolen identity information to file fraudulent tax returns and claim refunds at the federal level and expanding into the state level. In the third quarter of fiscal 2015, we and certain states took the precautionary step of suspending the electronic filing of state tax returns for a short period of time to assess this activity and the measures used to combat it. As part of this effort, we implemented additional security measures in our products and began working with state governments to share information regarding suspicious filings while continuing to share such information with the federal government. In addition, as a result of recent events and with the continued focus on the growing industry-wide challenge of cyberfraud during this tax season, Intuit has been contacted by regulatory authorities, including Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, the SEC, the Department of Justice and certain state Attorneys General. As previously disclosed, Intuit is cooperating with all such inquiries,

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including formal requests for information. Going forward, we expect to continue to invest in security and to work with the broader industry and government to protect our customers against this type of fraud. While we have experienced negative publicity associated with this industry-wide issue, we do not believe our recent financial performance has been materially adversely impacted by this fraudulent activity or by the actions we have taken to combat it. However, there can be no assurance that our future financial performance will not be adversely impacted.
For a complete discussion of the most significant risks and uncertainties affecting our business, please see “Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Report.
Overview of Financial Results
The most important financial indicators that we use to assess our business are revenue growth for the company as a whole, for each reportable segment, and for product lines within each reportable segment; operating income growth and operating income margins for the company as a whole and for each reportable segment; earnings per share; and cash flow from operations. We also track certain non-financial drivers of revenue growth and, when material, identify them in the applicable discussions of segment results below. These non-financial drivers include, for example, customer growth and retention for all of our businesses and transaction volume for our payment processing business. Total credit and debit card transaction volume correlates strongly with the macroeconomic environment and is one of the key drivers of revenue growth in our payment processing business. Customers for our connected services offerings have generally grown faster than those for our traditional desktop software offerings, reflecting our strategic focus on connected services over the past few years. Connected services (total service and other revenue) generated $3.0 billion or 73% of our total revenue in fiscal 2015, compared with about 50% of our total revenue seven years ago. We expect connected services revenue as a percentage of our total revenue to continue to grow in the future.
Total net revenue for fiscal 2015 was $4.2 billion, a decrease of 1% compared with fiscal 2014. Total net revenue results were affected by the change to our desktop software offerings described in “Industry Trends and Seasonality” above. Revenue in our Small Business segment decreased 2% compared with fiscal 2014 due to the impact of this change on our QuickBooks desktop offerings, which more than offset QuickBooks Online revenue growth. The change to our desktop software offerings also impacted our Professional Tax segment, whose revenue decreased 33% compared with fiscal 2014. Revenue in our Consumer Tax segment increased 8% compared with fiscal 2014 due to 7% growth in U.S. federal TurboTax units.
Operating income from continuing operations decreased 43% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the impact of the change to our desktop software offerings on fiscal 2015 revenue and due to higher expenses for staffing, share-based compensation, and outside services. We also recorded goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges of $148 million to operating expense in fiscal 2015.
Net income from continuing operations decreased 52% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the decrease in operating income and a higher effective tax rate that related to the goodwill impairment charge in the fiscal 2015 period. Diluted net income per share from continuing operations for fiscal 2015 decreased 51% to $1.45, in line with the decrease in net income for that period.
We ended fiscal 2015 with cash, cash equivalents and investments totaling $1.7 billion. In fiscal 2015 we generated cash from operations, net sales of investments, and the issuance of common stock under employee stock plans. During the same period we used cash for the repurchase of shares of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, the payment of cash dividends, and capital expenditures. At July 31, 2015, we had authorization from our Board of Directors to expend up to an additional $2.6 billion for stock repurchases through May 19, 2019.

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Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
In preparing our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), we are required to make estimates, assumptions, and judgments that can have a significant impact on our net revenue, operating income or loss and net income or loss, as well as on the value of certain assets and liabilities on our balance sheet. We believe that the estimates, assumptions, and judgments involved in the following accounting policies have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements, so we consider these to be our critical accounting policies:
Revenue Recognition
Business Combinations
Goodwill, Acquired Intangible Assets, and Other Long-Lived Assets – Impairment Assessments
Accounting for Share-Based Compensation Plans
Legal Contingencies
Accounting for Income Taxes – Estimates of Deferred Taxes, Valuation Allowances, and Uncertain Tax Positions
Our senior management has reviewed the development and selection of these critical accounting policies and their disclosure in this Annual Report on Form 10-K with the Audit and Risk Committee of our Board of Directors.
Revenue Recognition
We derive revenue from the sale of software subscriptions, hosted services, packaged software products, financial supplies, technical support plans, transaction fees, merchant services hardware, and multiple element arrangements that may include a combination of these items. We follow the appropriate revenue recognition rules for each type of revenue. For additional information, see “Revenue Recognition” in Note 1 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report. We generally recognize revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, we have delivered the product or performed the service, the fee is fixed or determinable and collectibility is probable. However, determining whether and when some of these criteria have been satisfied often involves exercising judgment and using estimates that can have a significant impact on the timing and amount of revenue we report. For example, for multiple element arrangements containing only software and software-related elements, we must exercise judgment and use estimates in order to (1) allocate the total price among the various elements we must deliver; (2) determine whether undelivered services are essential to the functionality of the delivered products and services; (3) determine whether vendor-specific evidence of fair value exists for each undelivered element; and (4) determine whether and when each element has been delivered. For multiple element arrangements containing non-software elements, we must exercise judgment and use estimates in order to (1) determine whether and when each element has been delivered; (2) determine the fair value of each element using the selling price hierarchy of vendor-specific evidence (VSOE) of fair value if available, third-party evidence (TPE) if VSOE is not available, and estimated selling price (ESP) if neither VSOE nor TPE is available; and (3) allocate the total price among the various elements based on the relative selling price method. If we were to change any of these judgments or estimates, it could cause a material increase or decrease in the amount of revenue that we report in a particular period. Amounts for fees collected or invoiced and due relating to arrangements where revenue cannot be recognized are reflected on our balance sheet as deferred revenue and recognized when the applicable revenue recognition criteria are satisfied.
Business Combinations
As described in “Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies – Business Combinations,” in Note 1 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report, under the acquisition method of accounting we generally recognize the identifiable assets acquired, the liabilities assumed, and any noncontrolling interests in an acquiree at their fair values as of the date of acquisition. We measure goodwill as the excess of consideration transferred, which we also measure at fair value, over the net of the acquisition date fair values of the identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed. The acquisition method of accounting requires us to exercise judgment and make significant estimates and assumptions regarding the fair values of the elements of a business combination as of the date of acquisition, including the fair values of identifiable intangible assets, deferred tax asset valuation allowances, liabilities related to uncertain tax positions, and contingencies. This method also requires us to refine these estimates over a one-year measurement period to reflect new information obtained about facts and circumstances that existed as of the acquisition date that, if known, would have affected the measurement of the amounts recognized as of that date. If we are required to retroactively adjust provisional amounts that we have recorded for the fair values of assets and liabilities in connection with acquisitions, these adjustments could materially decrease our operating income and net income and result in lower asset values on our balance sheet.

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Significant estimates and assumptions that we must make in estimating the fair value of acquired technology, customer lists, and other identifiable intangible assets include future cash flows that we expect to generate from the acquired assets. If the subsequent actual results and updated projections of the underlying business activity change compared with the assumptions and projections used to develop these values, we could record impairment charges. In addition, we have estimated the economic lives of certain acquired assets and these lives are used to calculate depreciation and amortization expense. If our estimates of the economic lives change, depreciation or amortization expenses could be accelerated or slowed.
Goodwill, Acquired Intangible Assets and Other Long-Lived Assets – Impairment Assessments
We estimate the fair value of acquired intangible assets and other long-lived assets that have finite useful lives whenever an event or change in circumstances indicates that the carrying value of the asset may not be recoverable. We test for potential impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets that have indefinite useful lives annually in our fourth fiscal quarter or whenever indicators of impairment arise. The timing of the annual test may result in charges to our statement of operations in our fourth fiscal quarter that could not have been reasonably foreseen in prior periods.
As described in “Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies – Goodwill, Acquired Intangible Assets and Other Long-Lived Assets,” in Note 1 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report, in order to estimate the fair value of goodwill we use a weighted combination of a discounted cash flow model (known as the income approach) and comparisons to publicly traded companies engaged in similar businesses (known as the market approach). The income approach requires us to use a number of assumptions, including market factors specific to the business, the amount and timing of estimated future cash flows to be generated by the business over an extended period of time, long-term growth rates for the business, and a rate of return that considers the relative risk of achieving the cash flows and the time value of money. We evaluate cash flows at the reporting unit level. Although the assumptions we use in our discounted cash flow model are consistent with the assumptions we use to generate our internal strategic plans and forecasts, significant judgment is required to estimate the amount and timing of future cash flows from each reporting unit and the relative risk of achieving those cash flows. When using the market approach, we make judgments about the comparability of publicly traded companies engaged in similar businesses. We base our judgments on factors such as size, growth rates, profitability, risk, and return on investment. We also make judgments when adjusting market multiples of revenue, operating income, and earnings for these companies to reflect their relative similarity to our own businesses. We had a total of $1.3 billion in goodwill on our balance sheet at July 31, 2015. See Note 5 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for a summary of goodwill by reportable segment.
We estimate the recoverability of acquired intangible assets and other long-lived assets that have finite useful lives by comparing the carrying amount of the asset to the future undiscounted cash flows that we expect the asset to generate. In order to estimate the fair value of those assets, we estimate the present value of future cash flows from those assets. The key assumptions that we use in our discounted cash flow model are the amount and timing of estimated future cash flows to be generated by the asset over an extended period of time and a rate of return that considers the relative risk of achieving the cash flows and the time value of money. Significant judgment is required to estimate the amount and timing of future cash flows and the relative risk of achieving those cash flows. We also make judgments about the remaining useful lives of acquired intangible assets and other long-lived assets that have finite lives. We had a total of $87 million in net acquired intangible assets on our balance sheet at July 31, 2015.
Assumptions and estimates about future values and remaining useful lives are complex and often subjective. They can be affected by a variety of factors, including external factors such as industry and economic trends, and internal factors such as changes in our business strategy and our internal forecasts. For example, if our future operating results do not meet current forecasts or if we experience a sustained decline in our market capitalization that is determined to be indicative of a reduction in fair value of one or more of our reporting units, we may be required to record future impairment charges for goodwill and acquired intangible assets. Impairment charges could materially decrease our future net income and result in lower asset values on our balance sheet.
During the fourth quarters of fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014, and fiscal 2013 we performed our annual goodwill impairment tests. Using the methodology described in “Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies – Goodwill, Acquired Intangible Assets and Other Long-Lived Assets,” in Note 1 to the financial statements in Part 8 of this Annual Report, we determined that the estimated fair values of all of our reporting units exceeded their carrying values and that they were not impaired. In addition, during this analysis we concluded that the estimated fair values of all of our reporting units substantially exceeded their carrying values.
During the third quarter of fiscal 2015 there was a significant decline in the revenue and operating income forecast for our Consumer Ecosystem reporting unit. As a result of this development, we performed an interim impairment test of goodwill and acquired intangible assets for that reporting unit. We concluded that the carrying value of goodwill associated with our Consumer Ecosystem reporting unit was impaired and we recorded an impairment charge of $263 million that reduced the carrying value of goodwill to $211 million as of April 30, 2015. See “Fair Value Measurements – Assets and Liabilities

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Measured at Fair Value on a Non-Recurring Basis,” in Note 2 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 management approved a plan to sell our Quicken business, which was part of our Consumer Ecosystem reporting unit, and we accounted for it as discontinued operations. As a result, we reclassified a portion of the goodwill impairment charge that we recorded in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 to discontinued operations based on the relative fair values of Quicken and the remaining components of our Consumer Ecosystem reporting unit.
In March 2013 the largest customer for our Intuit Health business acquired a company that offered similar solutions and competed with us directly in that market space. As a result, we performed an interim impairment test of goodwill and acquired intangible assets during the third quarter of fiscal 2013. We concluded that the carrying amounts of goodwill and certain definite-lived acquired intangible assets associated with our Intuit Health business were impaired and recorded an impairment charge of approximately $46 million that reduced the carrying value of those assets to zero. See “Fair Value Measurements – Assets and Liabilities Measured at Fair Value on a Non-Recurring Basis,” in Note 2 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 management approved a plan to sell our Intuit Health business and we accounted for it as discontinued operations. In the first quarter of fiscal 2014 we completed the sale for cash consideration that was not significant. Intuit Health was part of our former Other Businesses reportable segment.
Accounting for Share-Based Compensation Plans
At July 31, 2015, there was $513 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested share-based compensation arrangements granted under all equity compensation plans which we will amortize to expense in the future. Total unrecognized compensation cost will be adjusted for future changes in estimated forfeitures. We expect to recognize that cost over a weighted average vesting period of 2.3 years.
We use a lattice binomial model and the assumptions described in Note 11 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report to estimate the fair value of stock options granted. We estimate the expected term of options granted based on implied exercise patterns using a binomial model. We estimate the volatility of our common stock at the date of grant based on the implied volatility of publicly traded one-year and two-year options on our common stock. Our decision to use implied volatility is based upon the availability of actively traded options on our common stock and our assessment that implied volatility is more representative of future stock price trends than historical volatility. We base the risk-free interest rate that we use in our option valuation model on the implied yield in effect at the time of option grant on constant maturity U.S. Treasury issues with equivalent remaining terms. We use an annualized expected dividend yield in our option valuation model. We estimate forfeitures at the time of grant and revise those estimates in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from those estimates. We use historical data to estimate pre-vesting option forfeitures and record share-based compensation expense only for those awards that are expected to vest. We amortize the fair value of options on a straight-line basis over the requisite service periods of the awards, which are generally the vesting periods. We may elect to use different assumptions under our option valuation model in the future, which could materially affect our net income or loss and net income or loss per share.
Restricted stock units (RSUs) granted typically vest based on continued service. We value these time-based RSUs at the date of grant using the intrinsic value method, adjusted for estimated forfeitures. We amortize the fair value of time-based RSUs on a straight-line basis adjusted for estimated forfeitures over the service period. Certain RSUs granted to senior management vest based on the achievement of pre-established performance or market goals. We estimate the fair value of performance-based RSUs at the date of grant using the intrinsic value method and the probability that the specified performance criteria will be met, adjusted for estimated forfeitures. Each quarter we update our assessment of the probability that the specified performance criteria will be achieved and adjust our estimate of the fair value of the performance-based RSUs if necessary. We amortize the fair values of performance-based RSUs over the requisite service period adjusted for estimated forfeitures for each separately vesting tranche of the award. We estimate the fair value of market-based RSUs at the date of grant using a Monte Carlo valuation methodology and amortize those fair values over the requisite service period adjusted for estimated forfeitures for each separately vesting tranche of the award. The Monte Carlo methodology that we use to estimate the fair value of market-based RSUs at the date of grant incorporates into the valuation the possibility that the market condition may not be satisfied. Provided that the requisite service is rendered, the total fair value of the market-based RSUs at the date of grant must be recognized as compensation expense even if the market condition is not achieved. However, the number of shares that ultimately vest can vary significantly with the performance of the specified market criteria. All of the RSUs we grant have dividend rights that are subject to the same vesting requirements as the underlying equity awards, so we do not adjust the intrinsic (market) value of our RSUs for dividends. See Note 11 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.

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Legal Contingencies
We are subject to certain legal proceedings, as well as demands, claims and threatened litigation that arise in the normal course of our business. We review the status of each significant matter quarterly and assess our potential financial exposure. If the potential loss from any claim or legal proceeding is considered probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated, we record a liability and an expense for the estimated loss. If we determine that a loss is possible and the range of the loss can be reasonably determined, then we disclose the range of the possible loss. Significant judgment is required in the determination of whether a potential loss is probable, reasonably possible, or remote as well as in the determination of whether a potential exposure is reasonably estimable. Our accruals are based on the best information available at the time. As additional information becomes available, we reassess the potential liability related to our pending claims and litigation and may revise our estimates. Potential legal liabilities and the revision of estimates of potential legal liabilities could have a material impact on our financial position and results of operations.
Accounting for Income Taxes – Estimates of Deferred Taxes, Valuation Allowances, and Uncertain Tax Positions
We estimate our income taxes based on the various jurisdictions where we conduct business. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide income tax provision. The calculation of our tax liabilities involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of complex tax rules and the potential for future adjustment of our uncertain tax positions by the United States Internal Revenue Service or other taxing jurisdictions. We estimate our current tax liability and assess temporary differences that result from differing treatments of certain items for tax and accounting purposes. These differences result in deferred tax assets and liabilities, which we show on our balance sheet. We must then assess the likelihood that our deferred tax assets will be realized. To the extent we believe that realization is not likely, we establish a valuation allowance. When we establish a valuation allowance or increase this allowance in an accounting period, we record a corresponding tax expense in our statement of operations.
At July 31, 2015, we had net deferred tax assets of $185 million which included a valuation allowance of $30 million for loss and tax credit carryforwards related to state tax credits, state capital and operating losses, and foreign losses. We recorded the valuation allowance to reflect uncertainties about whether we will be able to utilize some of our deferred tax assets before they expire. While we believe our current valuation allowance is sufficient, we could in the future be required to increase the valuation allowance to take into account additional deferred tax assets that we may be unable to realize. We assess the need for an adjustment to the valuation allowance on a quarterly basis. The assessment is based on our estimates of future sources of taxable income for the jurisdictions in which we operate and the periods over which our deferred tax assets will be realizable. See Note 10 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
We recognize and measure benefits for uncertain tax positions using a two-step approach. The first step is to evaluate the tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained upon audit, including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes. For tax positions that are more likely than not of being sustained upon audit, the second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount that is more than 50% likely of being realized upon settlement. Significant judgment is required to evaluate uncertain tax positions. We evaluate our uncertain tax positions on a quarterly basis. Our evaluations are based upon a number of factors, including changes in facts or circumstances, changes in tax law, correspondence with tax authorities during the course of audits and effective settlement of audit issues. Changes in the recognition or measurement of uncertain tax positions could result in material increases or decreases in our income tax expense in the period in which we make the change, which could have a material impact on our effective tax rate and operating results.


Results of Operations

Financial Overview
(Dollars in millions, except per share amounts)
Fiscal
2015
 
Fiscal
2014
 
Fiscal
2013
 
2015-2014
% Change
 
2014-2013
% Change
Total net revenue

$4,192

 

$4,243

 

$3,946

 
(1
%)
 
8
%
Operating income from continuing operations
738

 
1,300

 
1,208

 
(43
%)
 
8
%
Net income from continuing operations
413

 
853

 
807

 
(52
%)
 
6
%
Diluted net income per share from continuing operations

$1.45

 

$2.94

 

$2.66

 
(51
%)
 
11
%

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Fiscal 2015 Compared with Fiscal 2014
Total net revenue decreased $51 million or 1% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the change to our desktop software offerings described in “Executive Overview – Industry Trends and Seasonality” earlier in this Item 7. Revenue in our Small Business segment decreased 2% due to the impact of this change on our QuickBooks desktop offerings, which more than offset QuickBooks Online revenue growth. The change to our desktop software offerings also impacted our Professional Tax segment, whose revenue decreased 33%. Revenue in our Consumer Tax segment increased 8% due to 7% growth in U.S. federal TurboTax units. See “Segment Results” later in this Item 7 for more information.
Operating income from continuing operations decreased 43% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the impact of the change to our desktop software offerings on fiscal 2015 revenue and due to higher costs and operating expenses. Total operating expenses were $407 million higher in the fiscal 2015 period, including increases of about $96 million for staffing, about $57 million for share-based compensation, and about $38 million for outside services. We also recorded goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges of $148 million for our Consumer Ecosystem reporting unit in operating expense in fiscal 2015. See “Cost of Revenue” and “Operating Expenses” later in this Item 7 for more information.
Net income from continuing operations decreased 52% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the decrease in operating income and a higher effective tax rate that related to the goodwill impairment charge in the fiscal 2015 period. See “Non-Operating Income and Expenses – Income Taxes” later in this Item 7 for more information. Diluted net income per share from continuing operations for fiscal 2015 decreased 51% to $1.45, in line with the decrease in net income for that period.

Fiscal 2014 Compared with Fiscal 2013
Total net revenue increased $297 million or 8% in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013, driven by revenue growth in our Small Business and Consumer Tax segments. Revenue in our Small Business segment was up 9%. Continued growth in revenue for QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, and QuickBooks Plus subscription offerings was partially offset by lower QuickBooks desktop license revenue. Revenue growth for our small business payroll solutions was driven by 25% growth in online payroll subscribers and price increases for desktop payroll customers. Revenue in our Consumer Tax segment increased 7% due to 10% growth in paid federal TurboTax units, partially offset by changes in product mix. Revenue in our Professional Tax segment revenue increased 4% due to price increases and new customer growth for our higher-priced offerings.
Operating income from continuing operations increased 8% in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 due to the increase in revenue described above partially offset by higher costs and operating expenses. Total operating expenses were $124 million higher in the fiscal 2014 period, including increases of about $90 million for staffing, about $22 million for marketing programs, and about $17 million for share-based compensation expenses, partially offset by a decrease of about $40 million for outside services. See “Cost of Revenue” and “Operating Expenses” later in this Item 7 for more information.
Net income from continuing operations increased 6% in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 due to the increase in operating income and a $21 million gain on the sale of an equity investment, partially offset by a higher effective tax rate in the fiscal 2014 period. See “Non-Operating Income and Expenses – Income Taxes” later in this Item 7 for more information. Diluted net income per share from continuing operations for fiscal 2014 increased 11% to $2.94 as a result of the increase in net income and the decline in weighted average diluted common shares compared with fiscal 2013.

Segment Results
The information below is organized in accordance with our three reportable segments. All of our segments operate primarily in the United States and sell primarily to customers in the United States. International total net revenue was less than 5% of consolidated total net revenue for all periods presented.
Segment operating income is segment net revenue less segment cost of revenue and operating expenses. Segment expenses do not include certain costs, such as corporate selling and marketing, product development, and general and administrative expenses and share-based compensation expenses, which are not allocated to specific segments. These unallocated costs totaled $1.01 billion in fiscal 2015, $870 million in fiscal 2014, and $792 million in fiscal 2013. Unallocated costs increased in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 and in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 due to increases in corporate product development and selling and marketing expenses in support of the growth of our businesses and to higher share-based compensation expenses. Segment expenses also do not include amortization of acquired technology, amortization of other acquired intangible assets, and goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges. See Note 14 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for reconciliations of total segment operating income to consolidated operating income from continuing operations for each fiscal year presented.

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We calculate revenue growth rates and segment operating margin figures using dollars in thousands. Those results may vary slightly from figures calculated using the dollars in millions presented.
Small Business
(Dollars in millions)
Fiscal
2015
 
Fiscal
2014
 
Fiscal
2013
 
2015-2014
% Change
 
2014-2013
% Change
Product revenue
$
709

 
$
851

 
$
851

 
 
 
 
Service and other revenue
1,399

 
1,307

 
1,137

 
 
 
 
Total segment revenue
$
2,108

 
$
2,158

 
$
1,988

 
(2
%)
 
9
%
% of total revenue
50
%
 
51
%
 
50
%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Segment operating income
$
696

 
$
852

 
$
806

 
(18
%)
 
6
%
% of related revenue
33
%
 
39
%
 
41
%
 
 
 
 
Product revenue in our Small Business segment is derived primarily from QuickBooks desktop software products, including QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Accountant, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions; QuickBooks Basic Payroll and QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll; QuickBooks Point of Sale solutions; ProAdvisor Program subscriptions for the accounting professionals who serve small businesses; and financial supplies. Service and other revenue in our Small Business segment is derived primarily from QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Accountant, our hosted financial and business management offerings; QuickBooks Pro Plus, QuickBooks Premier Plus, and QuickBooks Accountant Plus, our subscription offerings; QuickBooks technical support plans; small business payroll services, including Quickbooks Online Payroll, Intuit Online Payroll, Intuit Full Service Payroll, and QuickBooks Assisted Payroll; and payment processing services for small businesses.
As part of our connected services strategy, over the past several quarters we have been focusing Small Business segment resources on the enhancement and marketing of our QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks desktop subscription offerings. As a result, QuickBooks desktop license units and revenue have been declining as more customers choose our hosted and subscription offerings and we expect this trend to continue. In our payments business we are focusing resources on core offerings for QuickBooks merchants in support of our small business ecosystem approach. Over the next few quarters we anticipate declining revenue for certain non-QuickBooks payments offerings that may slow overall revenue growth in our payments business.

Fiscal 2015 Compared with Fiscal 2014
Small Business segment total net revenue decreased $50 million or 2% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the impact of the change to our QuickBooks desktop offerings described in “Executive Overview – Industry Trends and Seasonality” earlier in this Item 7, which more than offset QuickBooks Online revenue growth. Small Business Online Ecosystem revenue grew 25%, driven by customer acquisition. QuickBooks Online customers grew 57% and online payroll customers grew 18%. Active online payments customers grew 5% and online payments charge volume grew 19%. In our Small Business Desktop Ecosystem, revenue declined 10%. QuickBooks desktop unit sales were 22% lower as we continued to emphasize QuickBooks Online while QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions revenue grew 29%.
Small Business segment operating income as a percentage of related revenue decreased in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014. The decrease was due to the impact of the changes to our desktop software offerings on segment revenue and cost of revenue. We expense costs of product revenue as they are incurred for delivered software and we do not defer any of these costs when product revenue is deferred. Small Business segment operating income was also affected by about $76 million in higher data center hosting and facilities expenses and about $43 million in higher outside services expenses.
Fiscal 2014 Compared with Fiscal 2013
Small Business segment total net revenue increased $170 million or 9% in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013. Small Business Online Ecosystem revenue grew 31%, driven by customer acquisition. QuickBooks Online customers grew 40% and online payroll customers grew 25%. Active online payments customers grew 4% and online payments charge volume grew 24%. In our Small Business Desktop Ecosystem, revenue from QuickBooks desktop software licenses declined 9% on 10% lower unit sales while revenue from QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions grew 25% and revenue from QuickBooks Plus subscriptions grew 16% in fiscal 2014. Revenue for certain non-core payments offerings was lower in fiscal 2014.

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Small Business segment operating income as a percentage of related revenue decreased in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013. The increase in segment revenue described above was partially offset by $64 million in higher staffing expenses due to an increase in headcount and $33 million in higher advertising and other marketing program expenses.
Consumer Tax
(Dollars in millions)
Fiscal
2015
 
Fiscal
2014
 
Fiscal
2013
 
2015-2014
% Change
 
2014-2013
% Change
Product revenue
$
212

 
$
246

 
$
254

 
 
 
 
Service and other revenue
1,588

 
1,417

 
1,298

 
 
 
 
Total segment revenue
$
1,800

 
$
1,663

 
$
1,552

 
8
%
 
7
%
% of total revenue
43
%
 
39
%
 
40
%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Segment operating income
$
1,131

 
$
1,075

 
$
964

 
5
%
 
11
%
% of related revenue
63
%
 
65
%
 
62
%
 
 
 
 
Consumer Tax service and other revenue is derived primarily from TurboTax Online tax return preparation services and electronic tax filing services. Consumer Tax product revenue is derived primarily from TurboTax desktop tax return preparation software.
Fiscal 2015 Compared with Fiscal 2014
Revenue for our Consumer Tax segment increased $137 million or 8% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to 7% growth in U.S. federal TurboTax units excluding Free File Alliance federal units. Online U.S. federal units represented approximately 82% of total TurboTax U.S. federal units for the 2014 tax season, up from approximately 80% for the 2013 tax season.
Consumer Tax segment operating income as a percentage of related revenue decreased in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to higher expenses for staffing and advertising and other marketing programs in fiscal 2015.
Fiscal 2014 Compared with Fiscal 2013
Consumer Tax segment total net revenue increased $111 million or 7% in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 due to 10% growth in U.S. federal TurboTax units, partially offset by changes in product mix. Online U.S. federal units represented approximately 80% of total TurboTax U.S. federal units for the 2013 tax season, up from approximately 78% for the 2012 tax season.
Consumer Tax segment operating income as a percentage of related revenue increased in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 due to the higher revenue described above and lower expenses for advertising and other marketing programs in fiscal 2014.
Professional Tax
(Dollars in millions)
Fiscal
2015
 
Fiscal
2014
 
Fiscal
2013
 
2015-2014
% Change
 
2014-2013
% Change
Product revenue
$
225

 
$
362

 
$
342

 
 
 
 
Service and other revenue
59

 
60

 
64

 
 
 
 
Total segment revenue
$
284

 
$
422

 
$
406

 
(33
%)
 
4
%
% of total revenue
7
%
 
10
%
 
10
%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Segment operating income
$
108

 
$
268

 
$
260

 
(60
%)
 
4
%
% of related revenue
38
%
 
64
%
 
64
%
 
 
 
 
Professional Tax segment product revenue is derived primarily from Lacerte, ProSeries, and Profile desktop tax preparation software products. Professional Tax service and other revenue is derived primarily from Intuit Tax Online tax return preparation, bank products, and related services that compliment the tax return preparation process.

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Fiscal 2015 Compared with Fiscal 2014
Professional Tax segment total net revenue decreased $138 million or 33% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the change to our desktop software offerings described in “Executive Overview – Industry Trends and Seasonality” earlier in this Item 7. Professional Tax customers grew about 1% in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014.
Professional Tax segment operating income as a percentage of related revenue decreased in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 primarily as a result of the revenue decrease described above.
Fiscal 2014 Compared with Fiscal 2013
Professional Tax segment total net revenue increased $16 million or 4% in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 due to price increases and new customer growth for our higher-priced offerings.
Professional Tax segment operating income as a percentage of related revenue was flat in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 because costs and expenses grew in proportion to revenue.

Cost of Revenue
(Dollars in millions)
Fiscal
2015
 
% of
Related
Revenue
 
Fiscal
2014
 
% of
Related
Revenue
 
Fiscal
2013
 
% of
Related
Revenue
Cost of product revenue
$
139

 
12
%
 
$
137

 
9
%
 
$
125

 
9
%
Cost of service and other revenue
556

 
18
%
 
466

 
17
%
 
402

 
16
%
Amortization of acquired technology
30

 
n/a

 
18

 
n/a

 
13

 
n/a

Total cost of revenue
$
725

 
17
%
 
$
621

 
15
%
 
$
540

 
14
%
Our cost of revenue has three components: (1) cost of product revenue, which includes the direct costs of manufacturing and shipping or electronically downloading our desktop software products; (2) cost of service and other revenue, which reflects direct costs associated with providing services, including data center and support costs related to delivering online services; and (3) amortization of acquired technology, which represents the cost of amortizing developed technologies that we have obtained through acquisitions over their useful lives.
Fiscal 2015 Compared with Fiscal 2014
Cost of product revenue as a percentage of product revenue increased in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to the deferral of QuickBooks and Professional Tax desktop software revenue described in “Executive Overview – Industry Trends and Seasonality” earlier in this Item 7. We expense costs of product revenue as they are incurred for delivered software and we do not defer any of these costs when product revenue is deferred. Cost of service and other revenue as a percentage of service and other revenue increased slightly in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014 due to higher customer care costs for our Small Business Online Ecosystem and TurboTax Online offerings.
Fiscal 2014 Compared with Fiscal 2013
Cost of service and other revenue as a percentage of service and other revenue increased slightly in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013 due to higher customer care costs in our payments business, partially offset by growth in our TurboTax Online, QuickBooks Online, and online payroll offerings. Online revenues have relatively lower costs of revenue compared with our other service offerings.



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Tables of Contents

Operating Expenses
(Dollars in millions)
Fiscal
2015
 
% of
Total
Net
Revenue
 
Fiscal
2014
 
% of
Total
Net
Revenue
 
Fiscal
2013
 
% of
Total
Net
Revenue
Selling and marketing
$
1,288

 
31
%
 
$
1,157

 
28
%
 
$
1,122

 
28
%
Research and development
798

 
19
%
 
714

 
17
%
 
647

 
17
%
General and administrative
483

 
11
%
 
444

 
10
%
 
412

 
10
%
Amortization of other acquired intangible assets
12

 
%
 
7

 
%
 
17

 
%
Goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges
148

 
4
%
 

 
%
 

 
%
Total operating expenses
$
2,729

 
65
%
 
$
2,322

 
55
%
 
$
2,198

 
55
%
Fiscal 2015 Compared with Fiscal 2014
Total operating expenses as a percentage of total net revenue increased to 65% in fiscal 2015 from 55% in fiscal 2014 primarily due to the decrease in revenue during fiscal 2015. Revenue decreased $51 million or 1% and total operating expenses increased $259 million, excluding the goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges in fiscal 2015. Total net revenue results were affected by the change to our desktop software offerings described in “Executive Overview – Industry Trends and Seasonality” earlier in this Item 7. Staffing expenses increased about $96 million due to higher headcount. Operating expenses also increased about $57 million for share-based compensation expenses and about $38 million for outside services. General and administrative expenses were partially offset by a $32 million pre-tax net gain on the sale of certain assets related to our Payments business. Share-based compensation expenses were higher in fiscal 2015 due to our assumption of certain equity awards in connection with recent business combinations. Share-based compensation expenses have also been increasing over time because the market price of our common stock has generally been increasing. As described in “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates” earlier in this Item 7, we also recorded $148 million in goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges for our Consumer Ecosystem reporting unit to operating expense in fiscal 2015.
Fiscal 2014 Compared with Fiscal 2013
Total operating expenses as a percentage of total net revenue were flat at 55% in fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2013. Revenue grew $297 million and total operating expenses increased $124 million in fiscal 2014. Operating expenses increased about $90 million for staffing expenses associated with higher headcount, about $22 million for marketing programs in our QuickBooks and Consumer Tax businesses, and about $17 million for share-based compensation while expenses for outside services decreased about $40 million. Share-based compensation expenses were higher in fiscal 2014 due to our assumption of certain equity awards in connection with business combinations. Share-based compensation expenses have also been increasing over time because the market price of our common stock has generally been increasing.


Non-Operating Income and Expenses
Interest Expense
In March 2007 we issued $500 million in senior unsecured notes that are due in March 2017. Interest expense of $27 million in fiscal 2015, $31 million in fiscal 2014, and $30 million in fiscal 2013 consisted primarily of interest on these senior notes. See Note 9 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
Interest and Other Income
(In millions)
Fiscal
2015
 
Fiscal
2014
 
Fiscal
2013
Interest income
$
8

 
$
6

 
$
3

Net gains on executive deferred compensation plan assets
3

 
6

 
7

Gain on sale of available-for-sale equity security

 
21

 

Other
(10
)
 
(2
)
 
(3
)
Total interest and other income, net
$
1

 
$
31

 
$
7


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Interest and other income, net consists primarily of interest income and net gains and losses on executive deferred compensation plan assets. Higher average interest rates and stable average invested balances resulted in higher interest income in fiscal 2015 compared with fiscal 2014. Higher average invested balances and slightly higher average interest rates resulted in higher interest income in fiscal 2014 compared with fiscal 2013. In accordance with authoritative guidance, we record gains and losses associated with executive deferred compensation plan assets in interest and other income and gains and losses associated with the related liabilities in operating expenses. The total amounts recorded in operating expenses for each period are approximately equal to the total amounts recorded in interest and other income in those periods.
In fiscal 2014 we sold an available-for-sale equity security for $26 million and recorded the gain of $21 million in interest and other income on our statement of operations.
Income Taxes
Effective Tax Rate
Our effective tax rates for fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014, and fiscal 2013 were approximately 42%, 34%, and 32%. Excluding discrete tax items primarily related to the goodwill impairment charge, our effective tax rate for fiscal 2015 was approximately 36%. The differences between these rates and the federal statutory rate of 35% were primarily related to the tax benefit received from the domestic production activities deduction and the federal research and experimentation credit, partially offset by state income taxes. See Note 10 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information about our effective tax rates.
Net Deferred Tax Assets
At July 31, 2015, we had net deferred tax assets of $185 million which included a valuation allowance of $30 million for loss and tax credit carryforwards related to state tax credits, state capital and operating losses, and foreign losses. We recorded the valuation allowance to reflect uncertainties about whether we will be able to utilize some of our deferred tax assets before they expire. While we believe our current valuation allowance is sufficient, we could in the future be required to increase the valuation allowance to take into account additional deferred tax assets that we may be unable to realize. We assess the need for an adjustment to the valuation allowance on a quarterly basis. The assessment is based on our estimates of future sources of taxable income for the jurisdictions in which we operate and the periods over which our deferred tax assets will be realizable. See Note 10 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
Discontinued Operations
We have reclassified our statements of operations for all periods presented to reflect the businesses below as discontinued operations. See Note 7 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for a more complete description of these discontinued operations and the impact that they have had on our statements of operations for the fiscal periods presented.
In the fourth quarter fiscal 2015 we determined that our Demandforce, QuickBase, and Quicken businesses became long-lived assets held for sale and we classified them as discontinued operations.
We completed the sale of our Intuit Financial Services business in the first quarter of fiscal 2014 for approximately $1.025 billion in cash and recorded a $44 million pre-tax gain on disposal that was partially offset by a related income tax provision of approximately $8 million, resulting in a net gain on disposal of approximately $36 million. In the first quarter of fiscal 2014 we also completed the sale of our Intuit Health business for cash consideration that was not significant and recorded a $4 million pre-tax loss on disposal that was more than offset by a related income tax benefit of approximately $14 million, resulting in a net gain on disposal of approximately $10 million.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2013 we completed the sale of our Intuit Websites business for approximately $60 million in cash and recorded a gain on disposal of approximately $32 million, net of income taxes.

Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
At July 31, 2015, our cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $1.7 billion, a decrease of $217 million from July 31, 2014 due to the factors described in “Statements of Cash Flows” below. Our primary source of liquidity has been cash from operations, which entails the collection of accounts receivable for products and services. Our primary uses of cash have been for research and development programs, selling and marketing activities, capital projects, acquisitions of businesses, debt service costs, repurchases of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, and the payment of cash dividends. As

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discussed in “Executive Overview – Industry Trends and Seasonality” earlier in this Item 7, our business is subject to significant seasonality. The balance of our cash, cash equivalents and investments generally fluctuates with that seasonal pattern. We believe the seasonality of our business is likely to continue in the future.
The following table summarizes selected measures of our liquidity and capital resources at the dates indicated:
(Dollars in millions)
July 31,
2015
 
July 31,
2014
 
$
Change
 
%
Change
Cash, cash equivalents and investments
$
1,697

 
$
1,914

 
$
(217
)
 
(11
)%
Long-term investments
27

 
31

 
(4
)
 
(13
)%
Long-term debt
500

 
499

 
1

 
 %
Working capital
816

 
1,200

 
(384
)
 
(32
)%
Ratio of current assets to current liabilities
1.5 : 1

 
1.8 : 1

 

 

We have historically generated significant cash from operations and we expect to continue to do so during fiscal 2016. Since our operations are primarily domestic, approximately 90% of our cash, cash equivalents and investments at July 31, 2015 were located in the U.S. and none of those funds were restricted. Our only significant debt consists of $500 million in senior unsecured notes due in March 2017. We also have an unused $500 million unsecured revolving line of credit facility available to us for general corporate purposes, including future acquisitions and stock repurchases.
We evaluate, on an ongoing basis, the merits of acquiring technology or businesses, or establishing strategic relationships with and investing in other companies. Our strong liquidity profile enables us to respond nimbly to these kinds of opportunities.
Based on past performance and current expectations, we believe that our cash and cash equivalents, investments, and cash generated from operations will be sufficient to meet anticipated seasonal working capital needs, capital expenditure requirements, contractual obligations, commitments, debt service requirements, and other liquidity requirements associated with our operations for at least the next 12 months. We expect to return excess cash generated by operations to our stockholders through repurchases of our common stock and payment of cash dividends, after taking into account our operating and strategic cash needs.
Statements of Cash Flows
The following table summarizes selected items from our statements of cash flows for fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014, and fiscal 2013. See the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for complete statements of cash flows for those periods.
 
Fiscal
 
Fiscal
 
Fiscal
(Dollars in millions)
2015
 
2014
 
2013
Net cash provided by (used in):
 
 
 
 
 
Operating activities
$
1,504

 
$
1,446

 
$
1,366

Investing activities
(182
)
 
(49
)
 
(485
)
Financing activities
(1,337
)
 
(1,551
)
 
(262
)
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash
(26
)
 
(6
)
 
(3
)
Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents
$
(41
)
 
$
(160
)
 
$
616

During fiscal 2015 we generated $1.5 billion in cash from operations. We also received $107 million in cash from the issuance of common stock under employee stock plans and $156 million for net sales of investments. During the same period we used $1.2 billion in cash for the repurchase of shares of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, $283 million for the payment of cash dividends, and $261 million for capital expenditures. Over the next four fiscal years, we expect to invest a total of about $250 million in capital improvements to expand our headquarters campus in Mountain View, California.
During fiscal 2014 we generated $1.4 billion in cash from operations and $1.0 billion from the sale of our Intuit Financial Services business. We also received $165 million in cash from the issuance of common stock under employee stock plans. During the same period we used $1.6 billion in cash for the repurchase of shares of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, $471 million for the acquisition of businesses (primarily Check Inc.), $421 million for net purchases of investments, $220 million for the payment of cash dividends, and $186 million for capital expenditures.
During fiscal 2013 we generated $1.4 billion in cash from operations. We also received $165 million in cash from the issuance of common stock under employee stock plans. During the same period we used $308 million in cash for net purchases of investments, $292 million for the repurchase of shares of our common stock under our stock repurchase programs, $203 million for the payment of cash dividends, and $195 million for capital expenditures.

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Stock Repurchase Programs and Dividends on Common Stock
As described in Note 11 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report, during fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014, and fiscal 2013 we continued to repurchase shares of our common stock under a series of repurchase programs that our Board of Directors has authorized. At July 31, 2015, we had authorization from our Board of Directors to expend up to an additional $2.6 billion for stock repurchases through May 19, 2019.
During fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014, and fiscal 2013 we also continued to pay quarterly cash dividends on shares of our outstanding common stock. In August 2015 our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share of outstanding common stock payable on October 19, 2015 to stockholders of records at the close of business on October 12, 2015. We currently expect to continue paying comparable cash dividends on a quarterly basis; however, future declarations of dividends and the establishment of future record dates and payment dates are subject to the final determination of our Board of Directors.
Business Combinations
On June 16, 2014 we acquired all of the outstanding equity interests of Check Inc. for total cash and other consideration of approximately $369 million. The $369 million included approximately $27 million for the fair value of assumed equity awards that is being charged to expense over service periods of up to four years. Check is now known as Mint Bills and is part of our Small Business segment. We have included the results of operations for Check in our consolidated results of operations from the date of acquisition. Their results of operations for periods prior to the date of acquisition were not material when compared with our consolidated results of operations. See Note 6 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
Commitments for Senior Unsecured Notes
On March 12, 2007 we issued $500 million of 5.75% senior unsecured notes due on March 15, 2017 (the Notes). The Notes are redeemable by Intuit at any time, subject to a make-whole premium. Interest is payable semiannually on March 15 and September 15. At July 31, 2015, our maximum commitment for interest payments under the Notes was $58 million. See Note 9 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility
On February 17, 2012 we entered into an agreement with certain institutional lenders for a $500 million unsecured revolving credit facility that will expire on February 17, 2017. See Note 8 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for a description of the key terms of this agreement, including the covenants. We remained in compliance with these covenants at all times during the quarter ended July 31, 2015. We may use the proceeds of any advances under this credit facility for general corporate purposes, including future acquisitions and stock repurchases. To date we have not borrowed under the credit facility. We monitor counterparty risk associated with the institutional lenders that are providing the credit facility. We currently believe that the credit facility will be available to us should we choose to borrow under it.
Cash Held by Foreign Subsidiaries
Our cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $1.7 billion at July 31, 2015. Of this amount, approximately 10% was held by our foreign subsidiaries and subject to repatriation tax considerations. These foreign funds were located primarily in Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. We intend to permanently reinvest a significant portion of our earnings from foreign operations, and we currently do not anticipate that we will need funds generated from foreign operations to fund our domestic operations. In the event that funds from foreign operations are needed to fund operations in the United States, if U.S. taxes have not been previously provided on the related earnings we would provide for and pay additional U.S. taxes at the time we change our intention with regard to the reinvestment of those earnings.


Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
At July 31, 2015, we did not have any significant off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined in Item 303(a)(4)(ii) of Regulation S-K.


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Contractual Obligations
The following table summarizes our known contractual obligations to make future payments at July 31, 2015:
 
Payments Due by Period
 
Less than
 
1-3
 
3-5
 
More than
 
 
(In millions)
1 year
 
years
 
years
 
5 years
 
Total
Amounts due under executive deferred compensation plan
$
65

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$
65

Senior unsecured notes

 
500

 

 

 
500

Interest and fees due on long-term obligations
29

 
29

 

 

 
58

License fee payable (1)
10

 
20

 
10

 

 
40

Operating leases (2)
74

 
130

 
97

 
221

 
522

Purchase obligations (3)
26

 
67

 

 
1

 
94

Total contractual obligations (4)
$
204

 
$
746

 
$
107

 
$
222

 
$
1,279

_____________________
(1)
In May 2009 we entered into an agreement to license certain technology for $20 million in cash and $100 million payable over ten fiscal years. See Note 9 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
(2)
Includes operating leases for facilities and equipment. Includes $143 million for facilities leases for our Demandforce and QuickBase businesses, which were classified as held for sale at July 31, 2015. We had no significant capital leases at July 31, 2015.
(3)
Represents agreements to purchase products and services that are enforceable, legally binding and specify terms, including: fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased; fixed, minimum or variable price provisions; and the approximate timing of the payments.
(4)
Other long-term obligations on our balance sheet at July 31, 2015 included non-current income tax liabilities of $45 million which related primarily to unrecognized tax benefits. We have not included this amount in the table above because we cannot make a reasonably reliable estimate regarding the timing of settlements with taxing authorities, if any.


Recent Accounting Pronouncements
For a description of recent accounting pronouncements and the potential impact of these pronouncements on our consolidated financial statements, see “Recent Accounting Pronouncements” in Note 1 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report.


ITEM 7A
QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Investment Portfolio
We actively monitor market conditions and developments specific to the securities in which we invest. We believe that we take a conservative approach to investing our funds in that we invest only in highly-rated securities and diversify our portfolio of investments. While we believe we take prudent measures to mitigate investment related risks, such risks cannot be fully eliminated because of market circumstances that are outside our control.
Our investments consist of instruments that meet quality standards that are consistent with our investment policy. This policy specifies that, except for direct obligations of the United States government, securities issued by agencies of the United States government, and money market funds, we diversify our investments by limiting our holdings with any individual issuer. We do not hold derivative financial instruments or European sovereign debt in our portfolio of investments. See Note 3 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for a summary of the amortized cost and fair value of our investments by type of issue.

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The following table presents our portfolio of cash equivalents and available-for-sale debt securities as of July 31, 2015 by stated maturity. The table is classified by the original maturity date listed on the security and includes cash equivalents, which consist primarily of money market funds. At July 31, 2015, the weighted average tax adjusted interest rate earned on our money market accounts was 0.3% and the weighted average tax adjusted interest rate earned on our investments was 0.61%.
 
Years Ending July 31,
 
 
(In millions)
2016
 
2017
 
2018
 
2019
 
2020
 
2021 and
Thereafter
 
Total
Cash equivalents
$
695

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$
695

Investments
435

 
442

 
156

 
3

 
1

 
27

 
1,064

Long-term investments

 

 

 

 

 
15

 
15

Total
$
1,130

 
$
442

 
$
156

 
$
3

 
$
1

 
$
42

 
$
1,774

Interest Rate Risk
Our cash equivalents and investments are subject to market risk due to changes in interest rates. Interest rate movements affect the interest income we earn on cash equivalents and investments and the value of those investments. If the Federal Reserve Target Rate had increased by 25 basis points from the level of July 31, 2015, the value of our investments at that date would have decreased by approximately $3 million. If the Federal Reserve Target Rate had increased by 100 basis points from the level of July 31, 2015, the value of our investments at that date would have decreased by approximately $11 million.
We are also exposed to the impact of changes in interest rates as they affect our $500 million revolving credit facility. Advances under the credit facility accrue interest at rates that are equal to JP Morgan’s alternate base rate plus a margin that ranges from 0.0% to 0.5% or the London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus a margin that ranges from 0.9% to 1.5%, in both cases based on our senior debt credit ratings. Consequently, our interest expense would fluctuate with changes in the general level of these interest rates if we were to borrow any amounts under the credit facility. At July 31, 2015, no amounts were outstanding under the credit facility.
On March 12, 2007 we issued $500 million of 5.75% senior unsecured notes due on March 15, 2017. We carry these senior notes at face value less unamortized discount on our balance sheets. Since these senior notes bear interest at fixed rates, we have no financial statement risk associated with changes in interest rates. However, the fair value of these notes fluctuates when interest rates change. See Note 2 and Note 9 to the financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report for more information.
Impact of Foreign Currency Rate Changes
The functional currencies of our international operating subsidiaries are generally the local currencies. We translate the assets and liabilities of our foreign subsidiaries at the exchange rates in effect on the balance sheet date. We translate their revenue, costs and expenses at the average rates of exchange in effect during the period. We include translation gains and losses in the stockholders’ equity section of our balance sheets. We include net gains and losses resulting from foreign exchange transactions in interest and other income in our statements of operations.
Since we translate foreign currencies (primarily Canadian dollars, Indian rupees, and British pounds) into U.S dollars for financial reporting purposes, currency fluctuations can have an impact on our financial results. The historical impact of currency fluctuations has generally been immaterial. We believe that our exposure to currency exchange fluctuation risk is not significant primarily because our global subsidiaries invoice customers and satisfy their financial obligations almost exclusively in their local currencies. Although the impact of currency fluctuations on our financial results has generally been immaterial in the past and we believe that for the reasons cited above currency fluctuations will not be significant in the future, the impact of currency fluctuations could be material in the future. As of July 31, 2015, we did not engage in foreign currency hedging activities.

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ITEM 8
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

1.
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

The following financial statements are filed as part of this Report:

 
Page
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


2.
INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES

The following financial statement schedule is filed as part of this Report and should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements:

Schedule
 
Page
 

 
 
All other schedules not listed above have been omitted because they are inapplicable or are not required.



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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM


The Board of Directors and Stockholders of Intuit Inc.

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Intuit Inc. as of July 31, 2015 and 2014, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended July 31, 2015. Our audits also included the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a). These financial statements and schedule are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and schedule based on our audits.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of Intuit Inc. at July 31, 2015 and 2014, and the consolidated results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended July 31, 2015, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also, in our opinion, the related financial statement schedule, when considered in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole, presents fairly in all material respects the information set forth therein.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), Intuit Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of July 31, 2015, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), and our report dated September 1, 2015 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.





/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

San Jose, California
September 1, 2015


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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM


The Board of Directors and Stockholders of Intuit Inc.

We have audited Intuit Inc.’s internal control over financial reporting as of July 31, 2015, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), (the COSO criteria). Intuit Inc.’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

 In our opinion, Intuit Inc. maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of July 31, 2015, based on the COSO criteria.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated balance sheets of Intuit Inc. as of July 31, 2015 and 2014, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended July 31, 2015 of Intuit Inc. and our report dated September 1, 2015 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

 
                            /s/ Ernst & Young LLP

San Jose, California
September 1, 2015



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INTUIT INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS


 
Twelve Months Ended July 31,
(In millions, except per share amounts)
2015
 
2014
 
2013
Net revenue:
 
 
 
 
 
Product
$
1,146

 
$
1,459

 
$
1,447

Service and other
3,046

 
2,784

 
2,499

Total net revenue
4,192

 
4,243

 
3,946

Costs and expenses:
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of revenue:
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of product revenue
139

 
137

 
125

Cost of service and other revenue
556

 
466

 
402

Amortization of acquired technology
30

 
18

 
13

Selling and marketing
1,288

 
1,157

 
1,122

Research and development
798

 
714

 
647

General and administrative
483

 
444

 
412

Amortization of other acquired intangible assets
12

 
7

 
17

Goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges
148

 

 

Total costs and expenses
3,454

 
2,943

 
2,738

Operating income from continuing operations
738

 
1,300

 
1,208

Interest expense
(27
)
 
(31
)
 
(30
)
Interest and other income, net
1

 
31

 
7

Income from continuing operations before income taxes
712

 
1,300

 
1,185

Income tax provision
299

 
447

 
378

Net income from continuing operations
413

 
853

 
807

Net income (loss) from discontinued operations
(48
)
 
54

 
51

Net income
$
365

 
$
907

 
$
858

 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic net income per share from continuing operations
$
1.47

 
$
2.99

 
$
2.72

Basic net income (loss) per share from discontinued operations
(0.17
)
 
0.19

 
0.17

Basic net income per share
$
1.30

 
$
3.18

 
$
2.89

Shares used in basic per share calculations
281

 
285

 
297

 
 
 
 
 
 
Diluted net income per share from continuing operations
$
1.45

 
$
2.94

 
$
2.66

Diluted net income (loss) per share from discontinued operations
(0.17
)
 
0.18

 
0.17

Diluted net income per share
$
1.28

 
$
3.12

 
$
2.83

Shares used in diluted per share calculations
286

 
291

 
303

 
 
 
 
 
 
Cash dividends declared per common share
$
1.00

 
$
0.76

 
$
0.68


See accompanying notes.



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INTUIT INC.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME


 
Twelve Months Ended July 31,
(In millions)
2015
 
2014
 
2013
Net income
$
365

 
$
907

 
$
858

Other comprehensive income (loss), net of income taxes:
 
 
 
 
 
Unrealized gains (losses) on available-for-sale debt securities
(1
)
 
1

 
(1
)
Unrealized losses on available-for-sale equity security

 
(5
)
 

Realized gain reclassified to net income (1)

 
(13
)
 

Foreign currency translation losses
(27
)
 
(5
)
 
(4
)
Total other comprehensive loss, net
(28
)
 
(22
)
 
(5
)
Comprehensive income
$
337

 
$
885

 
$
853


_________________________
(1)
Includes $21 million of realized gain on an available-for-sale equity security reclassified into interest and other income, net on the consolidated statements of operations and $8 million of related income taxes.

See accompanying notes.


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INTUIT INC.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
 
July 31,
(Dollars in millions, except par value; shares in thousands)
2015
 
2014
ASSETS
 
 
 
Current assets:
 
 
 
Cash and cash equivalents
$
808

 
$
849

Investments
889

 
1,065

Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $45 and $40
91

 
115

Income taxes receivable
84

 
35

Deferred income taxes
231

 
124

Prepaid expenses and other current assets
94

 
115

Current assets of discontinued operations
26

 
29

Current assets before funds held for customers
2,223

 
2,332

Funds held for customers
337

 
289

Total current assets
2,560

 
2,621

Long-term investments
27

 
31

Property and equipment, net
682

 
589

Goodwill
1,266

 
1,323

Acquired intangible assets, net
87

 
133

Other assets
111

 
108

Long-term assets of discontinued operations
235

 
396

Total assets
$
4,968

 
$
5,201

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY