IRS will validate contractors' taxpayer ID numbers for FAR

• By Mary Mosquera
• Oct 21, 2005

IRS will automatically validate vendors' taxpayer identification numbers as part of Central Contractor Registration, a change in the Federal Acquisition Regulation proposed by the Civilian Agency Acquisition and the Defense Acquisition Regulations councils.

The update aims to improve data accuracy in federal procurement. The FAR change is possible because technology is now available to provide for a near real-time, Web-based application integrating contractor registration with IRS validation.

The Defense Department, the General Services Administration and NASA posted the notice earlier this week in the Federal Register.

Previously, the IRS code restricted disclosure without a taxpayer's consent, which would have been costly and inefficient. The contractor registration was updated to include tax number consent. Comments are due Dec. 19.