Each month IMS hosts a contest where all employees bring in a dish the share.  Everyone votes to decide the best dish presented.  The winner takes home a cash prize, gets to hold the IMS Top Chef Trophy for the month, and selects a charity for IMS to donate to. 

Karen choose to donate to Operation Care Package.  The goal of Operation Care Package’s is “making sure that no deployed hero goes without mail.”  By taking donations both of supplies to make care packages and monetary to pay for shipping, this organization sends care packages to all US Deployed troops.  Check them out at www.operationcarepackage.org.

Good luck to everyone next month!

IMS offers a plan to make this happen.  Available through your online account access, this program is offered with our processor, National Processing Company (NPC).  It is a simple process to quickly validate PCI Compliance.

Validation through this program is not required, but is the fastest way to complete your Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ).  The online system is designed to ask the minimum number of questions and to fill out your SAQ.  Upon completing the questions, all paperwork will automatically be submitted and a certificate of compliance will be provided for your business.  If you are an IP merchant and require a scanning of your network, we include this into our program.

$50,000 in waiver of liability is provided to every merchant who validates through our PCI Compliance program. 

There is an additional cost for this program, which can be billed either monthly or annually. 

Contact us at 800-689-0543 for more information and detailed pricing.

A quick overview of PCI, without using huge misleading words, is that it is proof of best practices in taking credit card payments.  All the merchant has to do is complete a questionnaire and confirmation of completion about how their business accepts credit cards.  After the questionnaire and confirmation are completed, send it in.  In the event that one of your business practices in accepting credit cards is not recommended we will let you know.  Once you have correct any issues your business will be PCI Compliant.

To learn more about who came up with PCI and why it is necessary check out Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council website.  For a fun quick video overview of recommended practices check out the  PCI Data Security Standards Rock Video .  This video is a quick view of the biggest things that can be done to be PCI compliant.

Depending on how you accept credit cards will effect which Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) and Attestation of Compliance (AOC) you fill out.

SAQ A & AOC A- Merchant who process credit card transitions via a payment gateway.  This includes e-commerce merchants.

SAQ B & AOC B- Merchants who process credit card transactions via a stand-alone dial terminal.

SAQ C & AOC C- Merchants who process credit card transaction via a PC Software system located in their merchant location.  These merchants DO NOT STORE cardholder information electronically at their merchant location.  This includes stand-alone IP terminals.  This will require getting a security scan of your network.

SAQ C-VT & AOC C-VT- Merchants who process credit cards via a secure virtual terminal.

SAQ D & SAQ D- Merchant who process credit card transaction electronically and DO STORE cardholder information electronically at their merchant location.

 Validating sounds like a huge pain.  In fact most times validating in simply filling out a survey about how you accept cards and what you do with the receipts.  It can take as little as 20 minutes to validate for many merchants.

 Take the time to call in and find out what your business needs to do.  It will save you money!

This came from a new tax requirement that was created to report credit card processing in 2008. Specifically, the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 created Section 6050 W of the Internal Revenue Code. Starting in 2011, merchants are required to provide their tax identification number (TIN) and tax filing name to their merchant acquirer. This information is then used to file a 1099-K form with the IRS and to provide a copy of the 1099-K to the merchant. If the TIN is not reported, is incorrectly reported, or the TIN does not match the legal name, the IRS will notify the acquirer and require the acquirer to withhold tax on funding. This hold would be at 28% and start in 2013.

IMS will be providing the 1099-K to all of our merchants free of cost. It will be mailed to you at the end of the year. The 1099-K contains your gross annual processing amount and gross processing each month.

Starting in February of 2012, IMS will start to offer our Regulatory Account Assistance Program (RAAP). This program will add the reporting of the 1099-K to a merchant’s online portal, making it available at any time. 1099-K forms from previous years will also be available. In addition, the RAAP online program will supply merchant with their net amount of processing, this is useful in properly filing taxes, and a reconciliation tool. The program is optional and costs $50.00 per year. If you are interested in enrolling in the program please call us at 800-689-0543.

Form 1099K

Our biggest addition is our new blog.  The credit card and payment industry is very complicated and ever changing.  We are excited to address different aspects of it in detail to create a fantastic source for information about the industry.  Service issues will also be a highlight in the blog as we look forward to grabbing some of the more common customer service questions and providing answers.  Lastly we look forward to helping you get to know IMS a little better and will spotlight different aspects of the company from time to time.

Beyond adding the blog we have eliminated the need for multiple phone numbers.  One number is all you need.  Simply call the number on our site, 800-689-0543, and say hello.  We are here Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm Central.  We are happy to help out with any of your processing needs.  Outside of regular business hours our afterhours support team is ready and waiting to assist you.

We have also added a new callback feature.  If you want us to call you simply go to our Contact Us Page and fill our the “Request a Callback” section.  As soon as we can an experienced staff member will call you back.

Looking around the site you will also find our all new Learn, Services and Pricing pages.  The Learn page is dedicated to the most important topics we think every merchant should know about including a link to our Interchange page which even offers connection directly to Visa and MasterCard’s Interchange rates.  The Service page showcases the dependable state-of-the art solutions IMS is currently offering and the Pricing page let’s everybody see our Pass Through Pricing Plans.

We hope you enjoy the new site and look forward to talking to you soon.