Taxpayers Can Now Pay In Cash Online With New ACI Worldwide, IRS Offer

ACI Worldwide and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have expanded their partnership to offer consumers a new payment option that allows them to pay their taxes online with cash.

Once validated by the IRS, taxpayers who opt for the new cash option will receive a digital barcode token that they can take to any participating retail store to pay their tax debt and service fees in cash, according to a press release. The option is available through ACI Payments, an ACI Worldwide company.

The barcode technology is a product of a partnership between ACI and InComm Payments’ VanillaDirect Pay. The two companies just released yesterday a similar payment program for consumers that allows them to pay bills — such as utility, cable, insurance and higher education — in cash.

As with the bill pay program, over 60,000 retail stores participate in this new tax payment option, including all Family Dollar and Dollar General locations.

The pandemic has pushed forward the adoption of digital payments, but the lack of a cash option disadvantages un- and underbanked consumers, the press release noted. And the pandemic’s ripple effects on consumers’ financial situations have made it a challenge for consumers to pay their bills on time, according to a recent ACI Speedpay Pulse study.

More than a third of consumers will need at least six months to catch up on bill payments that were missed because of the pandemic, the study found, according to the press release.

Meanwhile, ACI Payments’ new barcode payment option increases the variety and convenience of tax payment methods for all taxpayers.

“As consumers contend with making payments amid the financial strain caused by the pandemic, offering more and convenient payment options will help taxpayers complete their payments,” said Sanjay Gupta, executive vice president of ACI Worldwide, in the press release. “ACI is committed to providing a wide array of cost-effective payment methods and channels to help the IRS make payments easier for taxpayers.”

ACI Worldwide is the first company to provide an online cash payment option for U.S. taxpayers, noted the press release. The “longest-tenured service provider” to the IRS, ACI Worldwide has processed over $25 billion in tax payments for over 20 years.