The Housing Tax Act of 2008 included the enactment of section 6050W of the Internal Revenue Code which requires merchant account processors to report merchants total gross processing amounts to the Internal Revenue Service. The reporting entity must also provide merchants with a corresponding 1099-K form.
This new requirement includes all processors and merchants, unless the merchant processes less than 200 transactions a year or total transaction payments is less than $20,000. Reporting begins in January 2012 and includes all transactions beginning January 2011.
All merchants must provide their processors with their valid tax identification number (TIN) and tax filing name. If a merchant fails to provide the TIN and tax filing name, or there is a discrepancy between the information provided and the information on file with the IRS, the merchant account provider will be required to hold taxes on future transaction funds. The backup withholding is currently 28%.
Merchants must ensure that the TIN and tax filing name provided to their processor matches what is on file with the IRS to avoid any future backup withholding.
More information on Section 6050W of the Internal Revenue Code
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Alto Global Processing: Regulation II - Frequently Asked Questions
The Federal Reserve has released a set of frequently asked questions (and answers) about "General-Use Prepaid Cards and Circumvention and Evasion". Given the Regulation II exemptions for certain reloadable prepaid cards, there seems to be a lot of industry questions about what exactly can be done with a general-use prepaid card and still have the card considered exempt from Regulation II interchange caps.
To view the FAQ's please visit: http://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/regii_faq.htm
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To view the FAQ's please visit: http://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/regii_faq.htm
Please visit Alto Global Processing
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Monday, September 12, 2011
HSBC Merchant Services launches PCI DSS compliance service
Established by card schemes Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discovery and JCB, the global standards set out minimum security requirements for companies accepting plastic.
Non-compliant firms can face unlimited fines, with one unnamed outfit hit for £100,000 as a result of a card data security breach within the last year, says HSBC Global Services.
Yet research commissioned last year by vendor Tripwire found that the vast majority of UK firms had yet to be certified as PCI DSS compliant with a third unsure if they would meet an upcoming September deadline.
In order to simplify what can be a complex processes, HSBC Merchant Services has launched Global Fortress, a one-stop shop for merchants seeking to become PCI compliant.
The processor says that for £6 a month per merchant ID, Global Fortress will help protect customer data and regularly test security systems, among other services, through qualified security assessor, SecurityMetrics.
Chris Davies, MD, HSBC Merchant Services, says: "Although the process to ensure your business is PCI DSS compliant can be an arduous one, it is necessary to protect customers' card data from fraud and protect the reputation of your business. Not only that, but a merchant may have to pay large fines if they decide to ignore these obligatory requirements.
"Global Fortress allows our customers to manage both of these potentially substantial issues: a simple way of achieving PCI DSS compliance and a path to possibly avoid receiving industry fines when compliance is maintained."
Non-compliant firms can face unlimited fines, with one unnamed outfit hit for £100,000 as a result of a card data security breach within the last year, says HSBC Global Services.
Yet research commissioned last year by vendor Tripwire found that the vast majority of UK firms had yet to be certified as PCI DSS compliant with a third unsure if they would meet an upcoming September deadline.
In order to simplify what can be a complex processes, HSBC Merchant Services has launched Global Fortress, a one-stop shop for merchants seeking to become PCI compliant.
The processor says that for £6 a month per merchant ID, Global Fortress will help protect customer data and regularly test security systems, among other services, through qualified security assessor, SecurityMetrics.
Chris Davies, MD, HSBC Merchant Services, says: "Although the process to ensure your business is PCI DSS compliant can be an arduous one, it is necessary to protect customers' card data from fraud and protect the reputation of your business. Not only that, but a merchant may have to pay large fines if they decide to ignore these obligatory requirements.
"Global Fortress allows our customers to manage both of these potentially substantial issues: a simple way of achieving PCI DSS compliance and a path to possibly avoid receiving industry fines when compliance is maintained."
Thursday, September 8, 2011
ALTO GLOBAL PROCESSING: WHAT IS ONLINE PAYMENT PROCESSING?
Online payment processing is the secure transfer and verification of financial data (ex: customer credit card information). This secure transfer of data is initialized from a merchant's e-commerce website or virtual terminal to a merchant's bank account. The communication vehicle to deliver this information between the entities is the payment gateway.
Hence, the gateway securely passes and receives information from financial institutions that have a part in the transaction. In most cases those parties are the Payment Processor (the company that coordinates the authorization, decline and applicable settlement of funds), Acquiring Bank (The affiliate bank that represents Visa/MasterCard) and Issuing Bank (the financial institution that extends the available credit of the card holder backed against the card holder's bank account)
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Hence, the gateway securely passes and receives information from financial institutions that have a part in the transaction. In most cases those parties are the Payment Processor (the company that coordinates the authorization, decline and applicable settlement of funds), Acquiring Bank (The affiliate bank that represents Visa/MasterCard) and Issuing Bank (the financial institution that extends the available credit of the card holder backed against the card holder's bank account)
Please visit Alto Global Processing
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Friday, August 26, 2011
Peter Thiel: If I'd Known, I Would Never Have Started PayPal by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
PayPal co-founder, Facebook billionaire and general Silicon Valley demigod Peter Thiel gave an interview to CapLinked, a company he invested in.
He talks about the college bubble and his history but the thing that's most striking is the fact that he said that if he had known everything he now knows about the payments industry before starting PayPal, he would never have tried to do it, because of how many difficulties there are in the space.
Thiel co-founded PayPal, took it public and then sold it for $1.5 billion to eBay.
It's a nice testament to the power of innovators just doing something they believe in and trying to figure it out from there. All of the experts would have predicted PayPal to be a failure, and they would have been "right" on paper.
He also talks about his decision to become the first outside investor in Facebook. The two things that stuck out for him about Facebook were: a) the fact that this was the first site where people logged in with their real identities, and so it had the potential to be an identity layer for the web, and b) the scale of Mark Zuckerberg's vision. That's what got him to invest.
He talks about the college bubble and his history but the thing that's most striking is the fact that he said that if he had known everything he now knows about the payments industry before starting PayPal, he would never have tried to do it, because of how many difficulties there are in the space.
Thiel co-founded PayPal, took it public and then sold it for $1.5 billion to eBay.
It's a nice testament to the power of innovators just doing something they believe in and trying to figure it out from there. All of the experts would have predicted PayPal to be a failure, and they would have been "right" on paper.
He also talks about his decision to become the first outside investor in Facebook. The two things that stuck out for him about Facebook were: a) the fact that this was the first site where people logged in with their real identities, and so it had the potential to be an identity layer for the web, and b) the scale of Mark Zuckerberg's vision. That's what got him to invest.
Friday, August 19, 2011
ViVOtech Ships EMV Payments and NFC mCommerce-Ready Reader
ViVOpay 8100 Designed to Meet Visa Technology Innovation Program; Potential Savings to Merchants of $2 Billion Annually by Eliminating PCI-DSS Validation Costs
SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - Aug 17, 2011) - ViVOtech, the near field communication (NFC) software and systems company, today announced the immediate availability of a new point of sale (POS) terminal for payments and NFC mobile commerce that could save eligible merchants more than $2 billion a year in annual Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) validation costs under a Visa Inc. initiative.
ViVOtech's new ViVOpay 8100 terminals accept traditional swipe cards with magnetic stripes, chip cards, contactless cards, and NFC-enabled mobile phones, as required by the Visa initiative announced last week to accelerate the migration to Eurocard-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) contact and contactless chip technology in the United States.
To motivate merchants, Visa announced on August 9, 2011: "Effective October 1, 2012, Visa will expand its Technology Innovation Program (TIP) to the U.S. TIP will eliminate the requirement for eligible merchants to annually validate their compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard for any year in which at least 75 percent of the merchant's Visa transactions originate from chip-enabled terminals. To qualify, terminals must be enabled to support both contact and contactless chip acceptance, including mobile contactless payments based on NFC technology."
The industry association Smart Card Alliance estimates annual PCI-DSS fraud-protection validations cost businesses more than $2 billion a year.
"Viva Visa!" said Michael (Mick) Mullagh, CEO of ViVOtech, which has shipped more than 850,000 contactless and NFC readers worldwide. "It's about time the U.S. joins the rest of the world, which has been using highly secure contact and contactless chip technology for nearly a decade. We applaud Visa's efforts to advance adoption here. And, we have the affordable technology available today in the new ViVOpay 8100 for merchants to take advantage of Visa's incentives while benefiting from rich NFC mobile commerce."
Much More than EMV-Ready
The new ViVOpay 8100 includes ViVOtech NFC checkout technology that enables merchants to accept and process coupons, personalized offers, loyalty programs and payments through the merchant's proprietary mobile applications.
With the ViVOpay 8100, consumers just insert, swipe or tap their payment cards, or tap their NFC mobile phones to pay or electronically redeem a coupon or discount voucher. The device also accepts Personal Identification Number (PIN) entry for secure debit transactions. Combined with ViVOtech's mLoyalty, coupons, and social networking software, the ViVOpay 8100 allows merchants to deliver personalized services to customers' NFC-enabled mobile phones.
The ViVOpay 8100 works with the most popular payment terminals and electronic cash register (ECR) systems used by merchants today, adding powerful new capabilities that include:
About ViVOtech
ViVOtech, the near field communication (NFC) software and systems company, enables rich mobile commerce solutions for in-store payment, loyalty, marketing, and merchandising. Merchant, payment, mobile, web and advertising companies use ViVOtech solutions to enhance customer experience and grow their business. ViVOtech's NFC software and systems are the broadest, most tested and deployed worldwide. Founded in 2001, Silicon Valley-based ViVOtech provides the key building blocks of the NFC ecosystem: smart applications for enhancing the customer experience, wallet and trusted service manager (TSM) software, and point of sale systems. ViVOtech's investors include Alloy Ventures, Citi Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Gotham, EDBI, First Data Corporation, Miven Ventures, Motorola Mobility, Motorola Solutions, Nokia Growth Partners, NCR, SingTel Innov8 and Sprint. Join the NFC revolution at http://www.ViVOtech.com.
ViVOtech's new ViVOpay 8100 terminals accept traditional swipe cards with magnetic stripes, chip cards, contactless cards, and NFC-enabled mobile phones, as required by the Visa initiative announced last week to accelerate the migration to Eurocard-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) contact and contactless chip technology in the United States.
To motivate merchants, Visa announced on August 9, 2011: "Effective October 1, 2012, Visa will expand its Technology Innovation Program (TIP) to the U.S. TIP will eliminate the requirement for eligible merchants to annually validate their compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard for any year in which at least 75 percent of the merchant's Visa transactions originate from chip-enabled terminals. To qualify, terminals must be enabled to support both contact and contactless chip acceptance, including mobile contactless payments based on NFC technology."
The industry association Smart Card Alliance estimates annual PCI-DSS fraud-protection validations cost businesses more than $2 billion a year.
"Viva Visa!" said Michael (Mick) Mullagh, CEO of ViVOtech, which has shipped more than 850,000 contactless and NFC readers worldwide. "It's about time the U.S. joins the rest of the world, which has been using highly secure contact and contactless chip technology for nearly a decade. We applaud Visa's efforts to advance adoption here. And, we have the affordable technology available today in the new ViVOpay 8100 for merchants to take advantage of Visa's incentives while benefiting from rich NFC mobile commerce."
Much More than EMV-Ready
The new ViVOpay 8100 includes ViVOtech NFC checkout technology that enables merchants to accept and process coupons, personalized offers, loyalty programs and payments through the merchant's proprietary mobile applications.
With the ViVOpay 8100, consumers just insert, swipe or tap their payment cards, or tap their NFC mobile phones to pay or electronically redeem a coupon or discount voucher. The device also accepts Personal Identification Number (PIN) entry for secure debit transactions. Combined with ViVOtech's mLoyalty, coupons, and social networking software, the ViVOpay 8100 allows merchants to deliver personalized services to customers' NFC-enabled mobile phones.
The ViVOpay 8100 works with the most popular payment terminals and electronic cash register (ECR) systems used by merchants today, adding powerful new capabilities that include:
- PCI 2.1 certification: Highly secure PIN pad provides protection from obsolescence beyond 2014.
- Integrated mobile payments and promotions module: Built-in support for NFC mobile payments, marketing and loyalty programs.
- Support for multiple transactions: Enables Chip-and-PIN and signature-based credit and debit transactions using mag-stripe, contactless and NFC mobile phones.
- ISO 14443 contactless and ISO 18092 peer-to-peer NFC, and MiFare Technologies.
- Remote download: Post-deployment firmware updates via remote download eliminate the need for additional hardware or device resetting.
- Customer-friendly keypad: Compliant with standards for the visually disabled, with a recessed keyboard providing maximum privacy.
- Advanced connectivity: Ethernet connectivity along with serial and USB communication support for multiple connectivity options to work with a versatile set of mobile-enabled applications.
About ViVOtech
ViVOtech, the near field communication (NFC) software and systems company, enables rich mobile commerce solutions for in-store payment, loyalty, marketing, and merchandising. Merchant, payment, mobile, web and advertising companies use ViVOtech solutions to enhance customer experience and grow their business. ViVOtech's NFC software and systems are the broadest, most tested and deployed worldwide. Founded in 2001, Silicon Valley-based ViVOtech provides the key building blocks of the NFC ecosystem: smart applications for enhancing the customer experience, wallet and trusted service manager (TSM) software, and point of sale systems. ViVOtech's investors include Alloy Ventures, Citi Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Gotham, EDBI, First Data Corporation, Miven Ventures, Motorola Mobility, Motorola Solutions, Nokia Growth Partners, NCR, SingTel Innov8 and Sprint. Join the NFC revolution at http://www.ViVOtech.com.
Monday, August 15, 2011
ALTO GLOBAL PROCESSING: ABOUT
(AGP) Alto Global Processing is a 'turn key' and full service payment processing solutions company. Our team specializes in payment gateway services and the issuing and/or reselling of private merchant accounts for 'high' risk clientele.
The most valuable asset of our team is founded on the versatility of our team members. Our management team was strategically selected and premised on areas of expertise. In turn, AGP has collectively created an operational team that has decades of combined experience in the technical, banking and merchant space.
AGP is cognizant of the ever changing regulations of the payment processing sector in reference to where their merchant's compete on a daily basis. So, we truly understand and empathize with the challenges a typical merchant is consistently faced with. More specifically, we have the ability to customize payment processing solutions that are not only 'turn key' but address the pressing needs of our clients:
• Increase Profitability for the Merchant: Increase overall revenue and
Decrease overall expenditures for the merchant.
• Provide payment services that allows the Merchant to do what they do best
• Reduce Risk by Calculative Decision Making
• Transparency in Managing Merchant Finances
• Deliver: 'Do What You Say You Are Going to Do'
• Quality Assurance. Innovation. Customer Service.
The most valuable asset of our team is founded on the versatility of our team members. Our management team was strategically selected and premised on areas of expertise. In turn, AGP has collectively created an operational team that has decades of combined experience in the technical, banking and merchant space.
AGP is cognizant of the ever changing regulations of the payment processing sector in reference to where their merchant's compete on a daily basis. So, we truly understand and empathize with the challenges a typical merchant is consistently faced with. More specifically, we have the ability to customize payment processing solutions that are not only 'turn key' but address the pressing needs of our clients:
• Increase Profitability for the Merchant: Increase overall revenue and
Decrease overall expenditures for the merchant.
• Provide payment services that allows the Merchant to do what they do best
• Reduce Risk by Calculative Decision Making
• Transparency in Managing Merchant Finances
• Deliver: 'Do What You Say You Are Going to Do'
• Quality Assurance. Innovation. Customer Service.
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