Description
The service provider shall provide the necessary products and services to accomplish all of the requirements stated herein.The Office of Foreign Missions (OFM) in the Department of State seeks to institute a credit and/or debit card based system to manage its obligation for providing diplomatic tax-relief privileges for foreign diplomatic missions, international organizations and their members throughout the United States. This new system will be referred to as the Diplomatic Tax-Exempt Credit/Debit (TECD) Program. OFM seeks from the private sector proposals for the provision of diplomatic tax-relief privileges initiated through the use of a provider issued ?tax-exempt? credit and/or debit card to foreign missions, international organizations and their eligible personnel. ?Tax-Exempt? means vendors should exempt or remove charges associated with most taxes on purchases made using such cards. The U.S. government will not underwrite or assume any liability for these credit/debit cards, and also will not guarantee payment of the debts on these credit cards. All risk in extending credit will fall on the credit issuer. OFM hopes to eventually provide diplomatic tax-relief privileges solely through a credit/debit card-based system. However, it accepts that technological and programmatic issues stand as current obstacles to achieving this vision. Therefore, this credit/debit card will serve as one of two systems that OFM will make available to the foreign mission and international organization community for obtaining diplomatic tax. OFM estimates that such credit/debit cards will be used frequently and will likely have a higher average use-rate in comparison to those issued to average consumers. The tax-exemption identification cards that OFM currently produces will continue to exist as an option for the provision of diplomatic tax-relief privileges. However, the option to use the existing system will only be available to certain individuals. Therefore, the majority of the diplomatic and international community will receive their tax-relief benefits through the TECD Program. Each mission/organization will have the option of using either the existing tax-exemption identification card system or the new TECD Program. In the event the selected bank is unable to provide services to a mission/organization or their members, they will be able to use the existing system. There are roughly 9,000 diplomatic tax-exemption cards currently circulating throughout the United States. The provision of this service will attract the operating accounts of many foreign missions and international organizations as well as their members to the bank selected for this program. Therefore, service providers stand to generate new revenues not only from providing this system, but also through the added customer and deposit base that goes along with providing banking services to such account holders. As a point of reference concerning the credit worthiness of foreign missions and their members, in conjunction with participating oil companies, OFM has provided ?tax-exempt? gasoline credit cards to foreign missions and diplomats since the mid-1980s. Although, the tax-relief mechanism used with this card is vastly different from the one described in this document, the extension and management of credit to foreign missions and their members is basically identical. Over the past 20 years, the service providers of the ?tax-exempt? gasoline credit cards have reported extremely few problems concerning foreign missions or their members as routinely delinquent or unable to pay balances on such accounts. A list of the oil companies that participate in the ?tax-exempt gasoline credit card program can be viewed on the OFM website at www.state.gov/ofm/tax/gasoline/24625.htm. OFM will permit the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to participate in the TECD program to facilitate its responsibility to provide tax-relief privileges to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) and its members. These privileges are established under the Taiwan Relations Act (PL 96-8) of April 10, 1979. AIT will serve most of the roles/responsibilities identified for OFM in this document. This solicitation not only offers the opportunity for service providers to present a solution to OFM?s business process needs for a credit and/or debit card based diplomatic tax relief program, but to propose added services that might realize the Department of State?s vision of electronic and streamlined government business processes, both domestically and abroad. Currently, OFM plans to offer this opportunity to all service providers capable of meeting or exceeding the requirements established in this document. Background of the Diplomatic Tax Exemption Process: The Foreign Missions Act of 1982 (22 USC 4301-4316) requires that OFM manage the U.S. Government?s provision of certain diplomatic privileges on the basis of reciprocity. The U.S. Government?s obligation to provide diplomatic tax relief is primarily a result of both the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. However, this privilege is also an obligation of various other bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements, such as the United Nations Headquarters? Agreement. The authority to authorize TECRO and its members for tax-relief privileges is an obligation of AIT in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act (PL 96-8) of April 10, 1979. Due to the reciprocity requirement in the Foreign Missions Act, OFM is required to provide foreign missions with diplomatic tax relief privileges to the extent that each counterpart foreign government provides such relief to the U.S. diplomatic mission and its members. Therefore, OFM limits or denies tax exemption to missions that limit or deny tax relief to U. S. diplomatic representatives in the host countr