Specifications for Vendors Wishing to Provide Electronic Credit Card Payment Services to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (the Tax Department) is offering a convenient method for individual taxpayers to pay income taxes owed by accepting electronic credit card payment transactions through the Tax Department’s front-end processing service providers. Vendors certified by the Tax Department to participate in this program will provide an electronic credit card authorization system that allows taxpayers to make New York State, New York City and Yonkers income tax payments by means of an Internet application, using American Express®, Discover®/Novus®, MasterCard®, and Visa® credit cards.

All vendors interested in participating in the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s Electronic Credit Card Payment Program must agree and adhere to the following program specifications:

Vendors must be an approved Internal Revenue Service (IRS) credit card service provider and demonstrate their willingness and ability to provide services consistent with the program support practices implemented for the IRS’s Credit Card Payment Program (e.g., hours of operation, customer support, disaster recovery, and reporting). Vendors must notify the department immediately if there are changes at the IRS that will impact the vendor’s process or the process at the Tax Department.
Vendors must immediately report to the Tax Department all improvements and enhancements to the vendor’s infrastructure as well as issues regarding system problems that would affect taxpayers making payments or the delivery of data files and credit card payment files to the Tax Department’s front-end processing service provider(s).
Vendors must agree to meet the Tax Department’s implementation dates for payments received through Internet channel. Specifically, the Tax Department is requiring that vendors adhere to the following implementation schedule:
- Personal Income Tax Current Year Tax Return Filing Payments – 1/02/2008 *
- Personal Income Tax Current Year Extension Payments - 1/02/2008 *
- Personal Income Tax Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments - 3/01/2008 *
* Vendors and the Tax Department must agree to a mutually acceptable timeframe for development and testing prior to implementation.
Vendors must work with the Tax Department’s front-end tax processing service provider(s) to coordinate file format, annual testing, transmission timing and problem resolution requirements.
Vendors must agree to provide customized Internet screens based on the Tax Department’s specific data collection requirements (e.g., New York State/City/Yonkers distribution). As part of the Internet screens, the vendors will host the Tax Department’s credit card disclaimer so that taxpayers can elect to view the disclaimer prior to completing their credit card transaction.
Vendors must act as the merchant of record and supply a merchant identification structure to support payment and transaction reconciliation.
Vendors must transmit data files and credit card payment files to the Tax Department’s front-end tax processing service provider(s) post-mirror balancing.
Taxpayers who choose to use the automated credit card payment system will be charged a per transaction convenience fee established by the vendor.
Vendors must agree to produce two separate transactions for the taxpayer’s credit card statement, one for the tax payment amount and one for the convenience fee amount.
Vendors must agree to support a within-transaction taxpayer option to allow the taxpayer to initiate an IRS transaction after the completion of the Tax Department transaction.
Vendors, or their financial service providers, must agree to refund fraudulent or erroneous transactions (chargebacks) to the cardholder’s bank prior to submitting an invoice to the Tax Department requesting that the Office of the State Comptroller initiate a payment to the vendor. When the invoice is submitted to the Tax Department, it must include all substantiating documentation, including the signed affidavit from the cardholder. After researching the inquiry, the Tax Department will make its determination and notify the vendor via e-mail of the findings.
Vendors must identify and develop a roster of individuals within their organizations responsible for resolving technical and programmatic problems. The roster must be provided to the Tax Department prior to start of each calendar year. The roster must be maintained to ensure that accurate and up-to-date contacts’ names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses are available.
Vendors must agree not to disclose, distribute, provide access to or sell any taxpayer and/or cardholder information derived from the Tax Department and Internet credit card payment services program to any third party. However, vendors may provide required information to the MasterCard financial service provider, American Express, Visa and Discover solely for the purpose of processing retrieval and chargeback requests.
Vendors must agree to support Internet credit card transaction production processing and the Tax Department’s (and its front-end tax processing service provider) user acceptance testing for Internet credit card transactions. Concurrent production processing and test processing capabilities are especially necessary to accommodate the Tax Department’s annual systems development rollover from the current tax year to the subsequent tax year, without a cessation to production service.
At the sole discretion of the Tax Department, vendors may be required to be recertified on a calendar year basis in order to continue to participate in this program. The Tax Department reserves the right to terminate the relationship with the vendor if the vendor fails to meet the standards stated above, or if there are significant or continuous performance issues.

Contact Information
Helen Pelersi, Director Taxpayer Services Strategy Bureau W.A. Harriman State Office Campus Building 8 - Room 757 Albany, NY 12227

Last Modified: December 28, 2007