Since 2005, SICPA has been a trailblazer in the tax stamp industry, consistently introducing innovations that have reshaped the market. These include the integration of unique identifiers into tax stamps, the use of cameras to activate stamps on production lines, and the application of security inks for direct marking.
Recently, SICPA achieved another major milestone: the accreditation of its testing laboratory for the authentication of the proprietary markers used in tax stamps.
ISO/IEC 17025 is the international standard that certifies the competence of testing and calibration laboratories and is typically awarded to scientific institutions such as police forensic labs.
SICPA already holds the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for banknotes, security documents, and fuel products. The recent extension to the authentication of proprietary markers used on tax stamps confirms the reliability of the security features and authentication technologies developed by SICPA for this market and validates that its forensic analyses are conducted with a high degree of scientific rigour.
For revenue authorities, this means that such forensic evidence, presented in court, will be credible and readily accepted across jurisdictions, in line with international legal standards. When a potentially fraudulent product bearing a tax stamp is identified by a government inspector, it is submitted to SICPA’s accredited laboratory for forensic analysis. If the stamp is confirmed to be counterfeit, the analysis report provided to the revenue authority is admissible in court. The report will lead to sanctions such as fines, seizures, and licence suspensions – and up to penal conviction where appropriate – without the risk of being challenged.
This accredited authentication service works hand-in-hand with SICPA’s Digital Market Intelligence solution to significantly enhance the enforcement capabilities of revenue authorities. Digital Market Intelligence is an AI-powered platform that analyses billions of records collected by SICPA’s tax stamp management systems, together with open-source data, to identify suspicious patterns potentially linked to fraud – patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed by conventional data analysis.
While AI-driven fraud detection ensures that non-compliant operators are identified, forensic-grade evidence gathered during inspections supports effective legal action.
This is a perfect example of how digital, and even AI-powered and material-based solutions create synergies to maximise system efficiency.
The effectiveness of these enforcement enhancing tools has already been proven in the field, resulting in several high-profile cases of fraud detected and prosecuted by the authorities of Tanzania (TSTN July 2025) and Chile (TSTN October 2024),
increasing compliance by all taxpayers and boosting revenue collection. Forensiclevel material security and digital capacity building technology tools are invaluable tools for revenue authorities willing to maximise their efficacy.
