Project: California Cigarette Tax Enforcement
Customer: SICPA
Form 10 Roles: Deployment, Field Service, Training
Cigarette - related tax evasion costs California an estimated $182 million annually. ... The high - tech tax stamp and other BOE enforcement efforts combine to reduce cigarette tax evasion by $133 million each year in sales and excise taxes.
--- California Board of Equalization , December 2010
The California Tobacco Licensing and Control Act is among the most successful pieces of legislation I was able to have enacted. The effectiveness of the bar code tax stamp is reflected in the decline in the number of count erfeit stamp seizures. In fiscal year 2004 - 05, 869 cigarette seizures were found to have counterfeit tax stamps. In 2008 - 09 that number decreased to 49 cigarette seizures – 94 percent decrease over the five-year period. The state inspectors and investigators of the Board of Equalization have proven the effectiveness of technology - based tax stamps, manufacturer and distributor licensing, and vigorous enforcement.
--Board of Equalization member Jerome Horton, Testimony on tobacco control and licensing to Congr essional Oversight Committee, May 27, 2010
Supporting a project of this magnitude, not to mention geographic footprint, has demanded a resourceful and creative approach.
– California State Board of Equalization
Form 10 is entering the 20th year of partnership with the state of California to help secure the state's tobacco tax revenue stream. In 2005, California selected Swiss product security powerhouse SICPA and Meyercord Revenue to implement and operate a legislatively enabled secure tax stamp solution. SICPA chose Form 10 Group as its subcontract partner to perform a variety of tasks pursuant to this first-in-the-nation initiative.
This innovative initiative involves applying secure stamps to each pack of cigarettes sold within California. Once a stamp is applied to the pack, state enforcement agents can accurately track each pack of cigarettes throughout its lifecycle. Authorized parties are permitted to receive reports on stamp ordering and application activities that allow them to pursue more active investigations. This first-in-the-nation secure tax enforcement system has proven to be very successful for over twenty years, yielding greater excise tax revenue and discouraging fraud. The original contract has been renewed multiple times and is still ongoing today.
Form 10’s relationship with SICPA in support of this and other projects has now entered its twentieth year of uninterrupted service and has included equipment installation, user training, hardware and software updates, field service and depot equipment repair, and customer service for both industry users and state investigative and administrative personnel. Today, 100 percent of cigarette packs commercialized in California carry the secure, track-and-trace tax stamp. This system continues to protect hundreds of million of dollars of excise tax revenue for California and significantly reduces criminal activity in the cigarette realm throughout California. Form 10 proudly continues supporting SICPA and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), as well as commercial customers that include Walmart, Costco, Safeway, and Rite Aid.