PURCHASE, N.Y. – MasterCard has taken a step to make itself more attractive to corporate customers by making it easier for them to meet their tax related obligations. The number two card brand has applied with the Internal Revenue Service to become a qualified payment card agent (QPCA), a status that will make it more attractive to corporate customers, it announced. Becoming a QPCA will enable the card brand to track payments corporations make of over $600.00 to mainly unincorporated merchants with Taxpayer Identification Numbers and report them to the agency in a 1099 form. Becoming a QPCA will allow MasterCard to track those payments and report them on behalf of the corporation, the brand said, thus saving the corporations time and money. "QPCA status will allow MasterCard to better serve its customers in soliciting accurate, reliable and complete supplier information," said Steve Abrams, senior vice president for MasterCard. "This new service will tangibly reduce costs and administration for corporate 1099 filings, definitively establish MasterCard cards as the most effective way to pay for business purchases and enhance merchant data quality, control and analysis," he added.