There is little information and much misinformation circulating regarding Visa's New Tax Payment Program - the most important fact being that Convenience Fees are not allowed for In-Office Visa Transactions outside of Tax Payments.

The new Tax Payment Program effective October 4, 2008 replaces the old Visa Tax pilot program which has concluded. Registration in the new program is REQUIRED if you or your third party provider is assessing a fee back to citizens on Tax Payments made with a Visa Card.

The Program applies to online as well as in-office, over the phone and in the mail transactions and all requirements of the Program must be met in all channels of payment. This means that your existing online payment programs are now non-compliant if they do not offer a fixed rate $3.95 for Visa consumer debit and if they do not submit and process the convenience fee transaction as a separate transaction.

Variable (percentage based) fees are allowed except on Visa Debit cards where a fixed fee ONLY must be applied and must not be greater than $3.95 (Visa has established a new interchange rate of $2.50 for payment processors).

The convenience fee transaction and the County/City Fee transaction MUST be submitted as separate transactions.

Most if not all Third Party Service Providers DO NOT comply with these rules. Make sure, when you are considering implementing a Tax Payment Program that you ask your solutions provider about the above requirements.

IF YOU WANT A COPY Of Visa's new Tax Payment Program rules fill out our convenienent contact form...