It is that time of year again "Tax Season" and everyone needs to start thinking about filing his or her tax returns.

TurboTax has made some "Tax Software" changes for this year and that leads to a software war between TurboTax and H&R Block.

MousePrint which is a sister site to ConsumerWorld.org sent out a warning for TurboTax users earlier this week. According to MousePrint regular customers of the TurboTax Deluxe software program used to help with the preparation of tax forms are in for a big surprise this year. The surprise involves the Intuit INTU-1.01%'s version of TurboTax Deluxe. This top selling desktop version of TurboTax will require an upgrade for the Premier and higher edition versions. This will affect the Q&A sections for Schedules C (self-employment income and all expenses), D (investments), and E (rental and partnership income) on the TurboTax Deluxe software. The full interview sections will no longer be on the TurboTax Deluxe software. This will require an upgrade for the already purchased TurboTax software. Therefore this will require more money spent by TurboTax customers.

The minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting showed that members are not likely to consider raising rates until April and might not inclined to do so if inflation remains at a low level. The minutes from December 16th and 17th voice concern about raising rates and many believe that will keep them at zero for a couple more meetings. Chairman Janet Yellen gave a speech after the meeting about the timing of an interest rate increase and the minutes support her belief that we are still months away from such an action.

A report from Cushing Oklahoma showed slow growth in oil demand while the glut of oil supply remained high. The EIA (Energy Information Assoc.) reported that crude supply decreased but that Cushing showed a large build up at the same time. This created a bearish tone in trading and oil stocks declined along with the price of oil in open trading. Also noted was a small increase in the demand for gasoline which spooked traders.

The Russian Central Bank raised interest rates to 17% overnight hoping to stem the fall of the Russian Ruble as the country’s main source of revenue, oil, dropped in price at historic rates. A glut in oil production has created a supply abundance worldwide. Since a debt default in 1998, the Russian economy has not been hit so hard. Interest rates were already high at 10.5% before the move that did not have the affect on the currency the central bank had hoped for. The currency remained soft in trading today. Interest rates were raised to encourage holders to keep their cash for additional future increases.

Crude oil dropped 4 percent on the day as investors got reports that oil stocks will remain high into the first quarter of next year. On the NYME January futures for oil fell to $63.05 a barrel or –4.2%. This is the lowest point in 5 years. Oil futures in London also fell at a similar pace. Analysts remain very bearish on crude oil as US drilling reports show large supply and the Japan economy continues to struggle.

Traders were hoping that the price declines would lead to less drilling rigs being established in the US but reports showed a continual increase in rigs. Meanwhile, Japan revised its GDP growth estimates lower and other countries were viewed to follow in the near future.

Many consumers have decided that deals presented on CyberMonday will be around longer or start earlier than one day and therefore have delayed making an immediate purchase, according to released reports. As shoppers returned to work, stores saw a 8.5% increase in CyberMonday sales compared to the same day in 2013. This is down compared to the 20.6% jump that consumers saw in 2013 over the prior year. Some see this as a maturing of the shopping habits of consumers during the Christmas season.

iPhone 6 will drive Apple Christmas sales to a healthy gain. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he predicts 71.5 million iPhone 6 sales in the fourth quarter of 2014. That is a large percentage gain (40%) over the same quarter last year and almost a doubling (82%) of the sales in the previous quarter.

Google CEO Larry Page sold 33 thousand shares for over $18 million last week in a disclosure statement to the SEC. He got 552.88 per share when he sold the Google stock and still owns a large number, 190 thousand worth over $105 million. The stock is currently near the 50 day moving average with a downward trend over the past 30 days. Their last quarter earnings missed consensus reports of $6.55 a share, coming in at $6.35 per share. Long term is hard to predict with the coming acquiring a number of companies and working to make its search business more profitable.

Google just signed a deal with NASA to rent the Moffit Federal Airfield in the South San Francisco Bay. The historic facility for the next 60 years will be used to advance Google’s space and robotics division, Planetary Ventures. In addition to the rent of $1.16 billion, they will invest $200 million into improvements. Hanger One, Two and Three have been used to store space and air craft. Hanger One is still the largest free standing structure in the world after almost 80 years. The main hanger will be used to advance Google’s space craft design and robots development.

Google stock has not seen much movement during 2014 even with revenue growth of 20% last quarter and earnings growth of 14% during the same time period compared to last year. But the company has moved into a leadership role in the new area that is set to explode in the coming 5 years, the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart homes are thought to take IoT on a annual growth rate of 67% in the next five years. This movement to a $2 billion unit industry will out pace the current darling, mobile devices. This relates to a $409 billion revenue market in 2019 from the current %61 billion market today. Google hopes to be the leader in this market while still focusing on its core search business.