The first Tax Stamp Forum, which took place in mid February in Budapest attracted some 170 delegates from nearly 100 organisations and 33 countries - representing government excise and customs agencies, cigarette and liquor manufacturers and suppliers of authentication and serialisation technologies.

The primary objective of the Forum was to bring these groups together to discuss the latest developments in tax stamp systems and learn from one another about requirements, best practice and potential solutions.

In this it certainly succeeded - aided by its fortuitous timing. As one speaker put it: 'the deteriorating global economic environment means maximising recovery of tax revenue is key for governments.' Despite their best efforts with fiscal stimulus packages and the like, governments cannot control the conditions that are leading to reduced receipts from income and corporation tax. Tobacco and alcohol consumption, on the other hand, is largely unaffected by the current economic situation and receipts from this form of tax are something that governments, with the right tools, can control.

Those tools were one of the topics under discussion during the Forum, with presentations on substrates, serialisation, security inks, taggants, holograms and digital tax stamp production. These were preceded by David Kenny from the European Central Bank providing a fascinating insight into the key security technologies used on euro banknotes, and the counterfeiting resilience of these.

But technology alone is not the solution, and another topic of great was the importance of enforcement , with Vaugh Volpi of PICA providing a demonstration of how ROI can be measured and achieved, and Sharron Laster of Alaska's Department of Revenue describing its efforts in securing the payment of excise from those buying cigarettes from out of state. This was brought into sharp focus by a subsequent presentation from Charlie Abraham of MarkMonitor demonstrating the reach and penetration of the internet as a distribution channel for fake and counterfeit products.

There were several other  representatives from revenue agencies whom, along with their security printers, were keen to describe the implementation and success of their programmes - with case studies covering Kosovo, Serbia, Brazil, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, the UK and, in the US, Alaska and California.

The latter was described by Dennis Loper of the California Distributors Association, which sponsored the legislation that made it the first state to adopt digital tax stamps.  It was of particular interest as several other states are now considering or in the process of passing legislation to follow its example.

But the US environment is a highly complex one, as Farrell Delman of the Farrell Delman of the Tobacco Merchants Association pointed out in his overview of the history and legislation governing tobacco taxes at federal and state level. He described how, in many states, excise tax is levied not only at the state level but also at the county and even local district or city level. In Alabama, for example, in addition to state taxes, there are additional taxes in 269 cities and 53 counties. Devising a programme that encompasses all these groups would be challenging to say the least.

But the enthusiasm for tax stamp programmes was clearly not matched by those representatives from the cigarette and alcohol manufacturers. for the reasons described in Authentication News (click here to view). Eliciting their involvement was, however, seen as key to the event as, whether they like it or not, they are one of the three key pillars in excise duty programmes.

A possible solution to the tensions between revenue agencies on the one hand, and manufacturers on the other, was provided by Ruth Ryan of Her Majesty Customs and Revenue in her description of the UK sprits programme that was developed in conjunction with the spirits industry. The latter was unwilling to go down the cumbersome and costly route of banderoles, and the solution instead is a digital download of artwork of a stamp which the spirits companies print on their labels. The logistics of this solution are evident, the security less so - and  it remains to be seen whether this approach will provide a sufficient barrier to counterfeiting that is one of the core problems with effective revenue collection.

The comments from those that took part were universally positive, as was their wish that future events on the topic be held. With this in mind, Reconnaissance International plans to hold the second Tax stamp Forum in June 2010 at a location to be determined, but most likely to be Eastern Europe.