Question 13.56

13.56 H&R Block quarterly tax services revenue.

H&R Block is the world’s largest consumer tax services provider. Consider a time series of its quarterly tax services revenues (in thousands of $) starting with the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 and ending on the second quarter of fiscal year 2014.31

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  1. Make a time plot of the revenue series. Describe any important features of the time series. Which fiscal quarter is associated with the April 15 tax season?
  2. Use the moving-average approach to compute seasonal ratios and report their values.
  3. Produce and plot the seasonally adjusted series. What are your impressions of this plot?
  4. Fit a trend model and report the -value of the trend coefficient? Is there enough evidence of the presence of trend?
  5. Given your conclusion of part (d), forecast tax services revenues for the third and fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014.