When you receive a letter from your merchant processor asking you to validate your Tax Identification Number (TIN) and legal business name with your merchant processor, it's important that you do it. If you don’t, the law requires 28% of your credit card transactions to be withheld immediately beginning January 1, 2012.TIN Matching is a new program set in place by the IRS to ensure merchant tax and business information match IRS records. TIN Matching originated from the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The act includes a section that requires acquiring banks to report the gross amount paid to merchants in settlement of payment card transactions to the IRS.
The law also requires the merchant acquiring entity to collect and annually verify the Tax Identification Number (TIN) and the legal business name associated with each number held by their merchants.
SecurityMetrics has established many programs with acquiring banks to streamline the TIN validation process for their merchants. You may be contacted in the future by your merchant processor asking you to validate TIN information at the SecurityMetrics website. The process will take less than 5 minutes to complete, and if you have any questions, SecurityMetrics representatives are available 24/7 at 801.705.5665.
Want more information? Check out our TIN Matching Service website.