Sales to the United States Government (Publication 102)
U.S. Government Bank Cards

The General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay Program provides GSA SmartPay3 charge card services to federal government agencies and organizations for use in conducting official business. All United States (U.S.) government debit and credit cards:

• Are issued to federal employees,
• Bear 16-digit account numbers with unique prefixes,
• Contain government-designed artwork,
• Are imprinted with "United States of America" and "Official Government Use Only," and
• Contain a SmartPay logo.

GSA SmartPay3—Effective November 30, 2018

GSA SmartPay3 credit card brands are MasterCard, Visa, Wright Express (WEX), and Voyager, effective November 30, 2018. Citibank and U.S. Bank issue these cards.

The unique prefix for each card type is listed below:

Card Type	Purchase (prefix)	Travel (prefix)	Fleet (prefix)
Visa	4614 4716	4614 4716 4486	4486 4614
MasterCard	5565 5568	5565 5568	5563 5565 5568
WEX and Voyager	N/A	N/A	5565 WEX 6900 WEX 7071 WEX 7088 Voyager

All purchases made with a "purchase" or "fleet" card are billed directly to the U.S. government and are exempt from sales or use tax. This exemption also applies to non-bulk purchases of diesel fuel.

Purchases billed directly to the federal employee are not considered sales to the U.S. government and are subject to sales or use tax.

Purchases made using "travel" cards may be billed directly to the federal government (exempt from sales or use tax) or to the federal employee (subject to sales or use tax). When accepting travel cards:

• If the sixth digit of the account number on the card is 1, 2, 3, or 4, purchases are billed to the federal employee and are subject to sales or use tax.
• If the sixth digit is 5, purchases for rental car and lodging vendors are billed to the U.S. government and exempt from sales and use tax. For other travel-related purchases, such as meals, the purchases are billed to the U.S. government but are subject to sales and use tax. The contracted issuing bank will divert the bill for the other travel-related purchases to the individual cardholder.
• If the sixth digit is 0, 6, 7, 8, or 9, purchases are billed to the U.S. government and exempt from sales or use tax.

Purchases may also be made using "integrated" cards. Purchases made using integrated cards may be billed directly to the federal government or to the federal employee. Unlike the GSA SmartPay2 contract, the number structure for integrated cards under GSA SmartPay3 is specific to each agency or organization using the card. For additional information, visit the GSA SmartPay website at smartpay.gsa.gov/.

Generally, if a card is used to make a purchase and that card does not cover that type of purchase, the purchase is automatically denied.