Jackson Hewitt Tax Service F2Q08 (Qtr End 10/31/07) Earnings Call Transcript

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2007-11-27 15:31:30.0

Tags: Jackson Hewitt Tax Services Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Your first question comes from Scott Schneeberger - CIBC World Markets.

Scott Schneeberger - CIBC World Markets

On the territory sales, Mike, you mentioned half are in targeted markets. Could you just elaborate a little bit more on that? The other half, how did that come about? The mix of territory sales -- who are existing franchisees and what percent is new? Thanks.

Mike Yerington

Let me talk for a minute about the concept of targeted territories, Scott. We've been focused on making sure that we expand our foot print where we need to. That sounds kind of simple on the concept, but basically it is taking a territory that has demonstrated that it has high growth and low share and probably low Jackson Hewitt distribution, so when I say targeted, I mean that about 70% of our territories that we targeted that way have been sold as part of the new territory mix. If you look at that, that would represent about 23% new franchisees into the system, versus about 15% from last year.

Scott Schneeberger - CIBC World Markets

Also, this legislation surrounding AMT is obviously a very big deal on the tax season. Could you talk about scenarios of how you think it may affect tax filers in the season? Speak around how it impacts you specifically, and perhaps relative to some of your peers? Thanks.

Mike Yerington

Let me first talk a little bit about the situation itself. Many of you on this call may know that Congress is looking at various scenarios affecting the alternative minimum tax. There are three scenarios we see that could possibly play out here. One is if the Congress does nothing, then this new law will take effect and you'll impact about another 21 million additional taxpayers. That's one scenario.

The other scenario is that Congress could change or delay the whole season, which we think is highly unlikely because that would impact 137 million taxpayers.

We think the most likely scenario would be that Congress would come up with a patch that would probably allow processing and be able to get some of the tax preparation done in a timely fashion; some may be delayed.

I think as far as the impact on us in that situation is we think any time there is a dynamic change in the marketplace it creates an opportunity for Jackson Hewitt. I think part of what we'll be doing is making sure that we educate and tell our customers what's going on. I think overall that should be viewed as a positive by our investors for the future, for us.

 

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