I’ll have a Slurpee and pay my taxes while I’m here

Growing up on Long Island, one of the favored hangouts during much of a misspent youth was in front of the local 7-Eleven.

During the day, our snack de jour would either be one of the brand’s trademark flavored Slurpees or one of the hundreds of high calorie and preservative laden packaged treats that would likely send a vegan into a seizure.

At night we’d try and bribe those 18 and older to buy us a six-pack which we would then transport under the cover of darkness to our traditional drinking venue - the railroad tracks.

Fast forward 40 years or so and now some 7,000 units of the national convenience store chain in 34 states have added another item to their menu – tax payments.

Seriously.

In a partnership with two payment companies, those who need to make payments to the IRS can do so at participating stores, which are usually open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

There is a $1,000 limit per day and a $3.99 fee per payment. Once a payment is made, the payee receives a receipt and the money is usually posted to their account within two days.

While this is unquestionably a convenience to a lot of folks, I look at it through a slightly different lens – that of yet another peripheral competitor to the accounting profession – although somewhat indirectly as 7-Eleven doesn’t perform the actual preparation.

But you sort of get the idea.

Remember when retail giant Wal-Mart began offering tax preparation services at many of their hypermart locations? And each year it seems that the AICPA becomes locked in a protracted battle with prep giant H&R Block about their tax service advertising campaigns. In reality it’s probably more a fight for arguably the least loyal client – the low end 1040 crowd than a slight against the integrity of CPAs.

A number of years ago, I wrote about how one of the most serious competitive encroachments on CPAs comes not from another accounting practice but rather from myriad financial institutions like banks. Over the past several years, banks have steadily made inroads on CPA client market share by offering such traditional accounting services such as tax preparation and financial planning at their branches.

Somehow though I don’t think I could ever become accustomed to paying a tax debt at a 7-Eleven location, but at least I’m old enough to buy my own beer.