Electronic Processing of Revenues and Expenditures, Including Texas.gov Portal Activity (APS 029)

Background

Additional Fees for Some Payments

In addition to accepting checks and cash payments, various state agencies and institutions of higher education allow customers to use credit cards, electronic payments and other payment methods to pay for permits, licenses, taxes or other fees. They may also accept payments over the internet. Noncash payments may result in additional costs to the customer, the agency or both.

Depending on statutory authorization, agencies may cover this additional cost by:

• Increasing the cost of permits, licenses, taxes or other fees.
• Charging an online processing fee.
• Collecting a subscription fee.

These additional amounts collected by agencies, as well as payments by agencies for transaction fees, credit card fees and other charges associated with receiving payments, must be accounted for and reported.

Definitions

Texas.gov

Texas.gov is the name of the state web portal and program administered by the Department of Information Resources (DIR) to provide for online payments.

Online processing fees

Online processing fees are an additional charge collected from the customer, licensee or taxpayer to cover the following costs:

• Credit card merchant fees.
• Internet transactions.
• Other charges associated with receiving noncash payments.

Any cost recovery fees approved by DIR for the purpose of paying the costs associated with implementing and maintaining electronic services are also considered online processing fees. Online processing fees are recorded as revenues in USAS.

Before charging an online processing fee, the agency must ensure it has the authority to do so. Agencies using the Texas.gov portal have the authority to charge a fee to cover the costs listed above. All fees charged through the authority of Texas.gov must be approved by the DIR governing board.

Subscription fees

Subscription fees are paid by licensing entities to cover costs of implementing an electronic infrastructure. These fees are recorded as expenditures in USAS.

To pay for this cost, an additional charge is collected from an occupational licensee. These receipts are recorded as revenues in USAS.

Licensing entities that collect an additional charge for the subscription fee must include this fee in the occupational license fee issuance and renewal amount. These entities must collect the amount from all license sales, regardless of how the licensee chooses to obtain or renew their license. However, licensing entities may not charge for the subscription fee until the service the fee is applied to is available on the internet.

Revenue and Expenditure Activity

Revenue

All amounts paid by a customer, licensee or taxpayer must be accounted for as revenue in USAS unless otherwise provided by law. This includes the actual fees, taxes or other charges, and any online processing or additional charge for the subscription fee paid by the customer.

Expenditure

Transaction fees, credit card fees and other charges associated with receiving electronic payments are paid by state agencies to cover the cost of processing credit card, internet and other noncash transactions. These charges are recorded as expenditures in USAS.

Local Funds

Online processing of revenue and expenditures transacted outside the state treasury should be accounted for in USAS using generic transactions. This also applies to institutions of higher education with authority to receive and maintain online processing fees outside the state treasury. For help recording generic transactions, contact your agency’s financial reporting analyst.

Texas.gov

While this policy covers all processing arrangements, most of the specific processing and coding guidelines contained in this policy document are related to the Texas.gov portal and the associated transaction activity in USAS.