The General Accounting Office (GAO) has updated Substitute W-9 & Vendor Authorization form (GAO-W-9) and the ACH Vendor Authorization form (GAO-618) in an effort to comply with the IRS Backup Withholding and FATCA reporting requirements, in addition to continuing to promote ACH payments as a part of the Statewide Warrant Reduction Effort.

For ease of communication with vendors/suppliers, both the GAO-W-9 form and the ACH form have been combined into one vendor package, called the GAO W-9 and ACH Package.  The package and the forms are available on the GAO website under /publications/forms.

Verbiage on the ACH (GAO-618) form directs vendors/suppliers to submit the ACH form directly to the GAO, in order to minimize the number of individuals handling sensitive information.  If the ACH form is mistakenly sent to agencies, it should immediately be forwarded to the GAO.

For vendors/suppliers that are registered in Arizona Payment Portal (APP) and successfully interfaced into AFIS, the GAO W-9 and ACH Package does NOT need to be sent to these vendors/suppliers.  A request for ACH payment information has already been added to the Vendors/Suppliers Portal of APP.

Please update any copies or links to the “old” forms.  Agencies and vendors/suppliers have the remainder of the calendar year as a grace period to continue using the previous versions of these forms.  Starting on January 1, 2019, the GAO will no longer accept the old forms. 

If you have any questions, feel free to email [email protected].