Total TurboTax sales rose to 8.2 million units from 7 million as sales of desktop units dropped to 3.3 million from 3.4 million and Free File Alliance units were flat at 300,000. The lift came as 4.6 million purchasers opted for TurboTax Web, a rise of 33 percent compared to 3.3 million a year earlier. Intuit’s new service of providing free tax advice to purchasers this year has been a boon, according to CEO Brad Smith. “The surprise is that it has helped us get even deeper in first-time filers,” he said. Meanwhile, sales of QB desktop units showed consecutive quarterly growth over the prior year for the first time in the last two years. Total desktop units sold were 442,000 in the second quarter, compared to 430,000 a year earlier. That followed first quarter sales of 276,000 units, up over the year ago 271,000. But QB Online hit 326,000 units for the most recently ended quarter compared to 241,000 in last year’s corresponding period. Despite the improvement in these categories the number of small business customers remained at 5 million, the level it has been at for five out of the last eleven quarters. The number of professional tax customers was also unchanged over the year-ago quarter at 93,000. Before this year, that total had declined each year from the peak of 112,000 users achieved in fiscal 2006 and 2007.