The innovative direct-to-distributor (DTD) tax stamp system offered 
by Meyercord, a SICPA company, provides customers a secure and highly reliable ordering, storage, and shipping platform that enables them to streamline and protect the fulfillment process of state-approved tax stamp orders to state-licensed tobacco distributors.
By printing, storing, and shipping agency-approved, secure tax stamps directly to distributors, the DTD solution significantly reduces administrative tasks and the costs associated with fulfillment and program management, and results in more rapid, streamlined delivery to purchasers.
SICPA recently caught up with Jerry Leonard, current Director of Taxpayer Assistance for the Oklahoma Tax Commission, which has used the DTD system to deliver secure tax stamps directly to tobacco wholesalers since 2012.
Note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
SICPA: Can you provide a bit of background on Oklahoma’s relationship with SICPA, when you first started using the DTD solution, and how it’s been beneficial?
Jerry Leonard: We started DTD in March of 2012. It has been remarkable ever since we started. It has made it much easier for us in terms of maintaining inventory, and wholesalers get quicker service and get their stamps sooner. As long as orders get in early enough in the day, the order is shipped out the same day, whereas before when it was done by paper form, which takes a while between receiving the request, pulling the stamps, and sending them out. DTD has drastically cut the time it takes for wholesalers to receive stamps and, with the value of stamps going up like they are, that’s a great thing.
SICPA: As the state-level customer for the DTD solution, what does your engagement with SICPA look like on a regular basis?
JL: If there is ever an issue that comes up, all I have to do is send an email or get on the phone with SICPA and they are doing everything they can to solve the issue with the wholesaler. For instance, we had a couple of wholesalers who had ordered stamps and, while the stamps were en route, the truck that was carrying them overturned and burned. SICPA was right on the spot, helping out and making sure that an emergency order got sent out to the wholesalers.
When we first had the DTD solution, something that was added within the first year or so was the ability for wholesalers to request an ‘emergency order’ so if, for instance, they needed the stamps overnight, they could select the ‘emergency’ option and stamps would be sent that night.
SICPA: How does the DTD system represent an improvement over previous tax stamp distribution systems in use in Oklahoma?
JL: Under the old system, a wholesaler filled out a paper form and they either brought it down to the building in Oklahoma City to get stamps or, if they were outside the state or in communities far away from Oklahoma City, they mailed it in. It delayed the orders and was much more cumbersome than simply going on the DTD system and placing the order electronically, which is then transferred to SICPA.
It has significantly streamlined the process. Now, we don’t have any stamps in the building, except for an emergency supply; before, a truck would deliver stamps that would then need to be held securely until they could be distributed to wholesalers. We don’t have to have a person assigned to take care of filling orders for cigarette stamps, that’s all taken care of directly between SICPA and the wholesaler and we can focus on other responsibilities.
SICPA: What is the process of enrolling a new wholesaler in the DTD system look like?
JL: When a wholesaler applies to do business in the state of Oklahoma, they are registered and then they are all given instructions about how they will order stamps. The only way for them to order stamps is to go on their Taxpayer Access Point (TAP) account; they order their stamps from there, and then the file is sent over to SICPA and orders are filled.
SICPA: Why is the streamlined delivery and application of these secure tax stamps so important to Oklahoma?
JL: The stamps are an important source of excise tax revenue for the state, so it’s critical that we collect that revenue and it’s distributed among different funds within the state.
