SECTION 7. OTHER REQUIREMENTS

.01 Availability of records . A payment card organization and its members, affiliates, and licensees must respond to any reasonable IRS request for inspection of any books and records that relate to the operation of TIN solicitation activ

holding and filing information returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

You may decline this service. If you do not want [insert name of card organization] to provide this service to you, you must complete the enclosed form and return it to [insert name of issuer] in the enclosed envelope.

For more information, contact [insert contact name and phone number.]

The notice may be included in the annual (or periodic) agreement, or amendments thereto, between the payment card organization and the cardholder or in a separate document. The outside of the envelope in which the written notice is mailed must contain, in bold and conspicuous type, the legend: “Important Tax and Privacy Materials Enclosed.”

(c) The text of the written notice provided to merchant/payees must be in bold and conspicuous type, and the notice must include the legend: “Important Tax and Privacy Materials.” The notice must state:

As a merchant, you may engage in transactions with cardholders for which cardholders may be required to file an information return with the Internal Revenue Service. If a cardholder is required to file an information return reporting a transaction with you to the Internal Revenue Service, the cardholder must include the amount of the payment, your name, and your taxpayer identification number. To facilitate the exchange of information between you and cardholders, [insert name of payment card organization] has received

[is seeking] approval from the Internal Revenue Service to act on your behalf, and on behalf of cardholders, to solicit, furnish, and validate your taxpayer identification number.

If you accept this service, your name and your taxpayer identification number will be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service for validation against the Internal Revenue Service taxpayer identification number database, and your name, taxpayer identification number, and corporate status may be provided to cardholders. Please be advised that if you accept this service,

[insert name of payment card organization] may request that you provide your taxpayer identification number to it or may seek to obtain your taxpayer

identification number from a reputable third-party source.

Please be aware that [insert name of payment card organization] has advised cardholders who may receive you name and taxpayer identification number that they must maintain the confidentiality of your information and may use it only for purposes of backup withholding and filing information returns with the Internal Revenue Service.

You may decline this service. If you do not want [insert name of payment card organization] to validate your name and taxpayer information number or to provide your name, taxpayer information number, and corporate status to cardholders, you should discontinue accepting the [insert name of payment card] as a means of obtaining payment. If you continue to accept the [insert name of payment card] as a means for obtaining payment after [insert 60 days after date of notice] you will be deemed to have agreed to this sharing of information.

For more information, contact [insert contact name and phone number.]

The notice may be included in the annual (or periodic) agreement, or amendments thereto, between the payment card organization and the merchant or in a separate document. The outside of the envelope in which the written notice is mailed must contain, in bold and conspicuous type, the legend: “Important Tax and Privacy Materials Enclosed.”

(2) TIN solicitation activities . The payment card organization must establish that it has undertaken, or demonstrate that it will undertake, the TIN solicitation activities described in section 6.

(3) Reliability of merchant/payee data . After obtaining the authorizations required by section 5.03(1), the payment card organization must participate in the IRS TIN Matching Program and must demonstrate, based on the TIN matching results, that its merchant/payee data is sufficiently reliable.