Michigan Encrypted Digital Tax Stamp Solution

New Solution will Protect $1 Billion in Annual Tobacco Tax and Master Settlement Agreement Revenues

SICPA, a global leader in authentication, revenue realization and secure traceability solutions, has completed the roll-out of its leading excise tax solution to protect cigarette excise tax collections in the State of Michigan under a five-year contract with the Michigan Department of Treasury. Upgrading to SICPATRACE®, an encrypted digital tax stamp platform, ensures all Tax Stamp Program stakeholders are able to authenticate and verify legitimate tax-paid cigarettes. However, only authorized field inspectors and enforcement agents have access to the unique data associated with each tax stamp to validate legitimate operations and track supply chain activity.  

The new contract, awarded in October 2021, represents a switch to SICPA after Michigan conducted a competitive procurement and determined SICPA provides the best value based on the proposed solution, vendor experience and team, and pricing. Under this new contract, SICPA builds upon its secure, comprehensive excise tax stamp solution used by all three encrypted cigarette stamp programs in North America – California, Massachusetts, and Canada – plus dozens of national programs around the world. The SICPATRACE platform includes secure tax stamp manufacturing, ordering and fulfillment, data management system, ad-hoc reporting, and enforcement tools. 

The new Michigan cigarette stamp features a multi-layered approach to security to ensure all stakeholders have a way to authenticate the stamp – and to ensure the stamp cannot be successfully counterfeited, replicated, or reused. The system architecture surrounding the secure tax stamps, and SICPA’s proactive approach to service and support, ensures seamless implementation and ease of use for regulators and taxpayers.

“Michigan is among the few select states taking bold steps to expand their tax stamping programs to track and trace programs with an encrypted digital tax stamp,” said Alex Finkel, COO of SICPA North America and President of Meyercord Revenue, a SICPA company. “SICPATRACE encrypted digital stamping platform has been running successfully for more than 15 years for the other three digital tax stamp programs in North America and with recent momentum, we expect other states may soon consider upgrading their tax stamp programs.”

 

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