ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[Dr Bob]

I don't think the vendor is charged more if the customer has a foreign credit card. That seems too unworkable to be reasonable (eg: how is the vendor supposed to know the customer has a foreign card beforehand ?).

Isn't it something to do with the card number. i.e. the first series of digits?

 

[coriander]

Can't be too hard if they can tell the difference between an ordinary credit Mastercard and a premium MasterCard in order to charge the vendor more

 

[albyd]

They can tell based on the number range. I think they must've had an uptick in foreign cards for payments and had to adjust charges to reflect this

 

[cove]

ATO site crashed again today. The IT job must have been won by the lowest bidder.

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

The shop owner is charge a much higher rate if it's an overseas card. This is a fact.
Unless the merchant rate is a blended rate then it's a fixed percentage changed by the bank to the merchant irrespective of the type of card used.

 

[imipenam]

ATO site crashed again today. The IT job must have been won by the lowest bidder.

At least there is some consistency in the selection process by both federal and state governments alike.

 

[slinky123]

Seems gift cards can no longer be used to Pay ATO at Australia Post, nor can they be used to pay anything else. In the past they were accepted as a method of payment.

Heres a screen shot of some correspondence received today.

 

[purpleparrot]

Seems gift cards can no longer be used to Pay ATO at Australia Post, nor can they be used to pay anything else. In the past they were accepted as a method of payment.

Heres a screen shot of some correspondence received today.

View attachment 100858

This reads to me that gift cards can't be used for cash equivalent payments and are designed to stop money laundering. I don't see how these new rules prohibit payments to the ATO.

 

[slinky123]

This reads to me that gift cards can't be used for cash equivalent payments and are designed to stop money laundering. I don't see how these new rules prohibit payments to the ATO.

They cannot be used as a payment method for anything ( of which ATO is included).
Though gift cards can of course be used on line to pay the ATO.

 

[albyd]

Let's hope the online payments can continue. Maybe I'm just naive and inexperienced but can't imagine an organization you'd be less inclined to engage in money laundering than the ATO.
Hopefully the ATO's desire to keep it easy to meet our obligations means the CC payment online option is kept available.

 

[burmans]

I don't think the vendor is charged more if the customer has a foreign credit card. That seems too unworkable to be reasonable (eg: how is the vendor supposed to know the customer has a foreign card beforehand ?).

I'm not expressing an opinion here! Don't believe me, look here at update to this page from the ATO themselves
https://www.ato.gov.au/general/payi...other-payment-details/?anchor=cardfee#cardfee under Card Payment Fee first two bullet points

Isn't it something to do with the card number. i.e. the first series of digits?

Yes the first few digits are the Bin Number or sometimes IIN. If you Google BIN or IIN check you will see there area number of checks to see who issued the cards, this can include a location check.

 

[andye]

Apparently you can trick the UK tax portal by entering a lower interchange card number then changing it on the following screen. The Australian version wouldn't let you do that and I'm not sure I'd fancy tricking the tax office (even if told it was only tricking the payment processor)

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I don't think the vendor is charged more if the customer has a foreign credit card. That seems too unworkable to be reasonable (eg: how is the vendor supposed to know the customer has a foreign card beforehand ?).

Well I can assure you that I am charged more if I receive payment from a foreign credit card.

 

[cove]

We negotiated a price for all of our Visa and MasterCard transactions into just one rate at work. It is now time for us to try to get that rate lowered following the Reserve Bank changes on July 1st. Amex will now be 1.5%.

 

[drsmithy]

So as a vendor, how are you supposed to identify a foreign card beforehand and pass on your costs appropriately ?

Isn't it a rather blatant case of double-dipping from Mastercard and Visa, since the customer pays higher fees as well ?

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

So as a vendor, how are you supposed to identify a foreign card beforehand and pass on your costs appropriately ?

Isn't it a rather blatant case of double-dipping from Mastercard and Visa, since the customer pays higher fees as well ?

That's the point. The banks are promoting premium cards to customers while charging higher merchant fees to the retailers.

 

[cove]

Banks make profits because they are in the right place at the right time. The pull back on earning points from ATO transactions is because there are better things for a bank to do.

 

[burmans]

So as a vendor, how are you supposed to identify a foreign card beforehand and pass on your costs appropriately ?

The only way I know to do this is via a BIN lookup as ATO are doing. I don't want to trivialise this, as I know this isn't necessarily easy but it can be done. Lets face it, plenty of vendors are already differentially surcharging on the basis of Amex vs. Visa/MasterCard, this is essentially the same process albeit to a more granular level.

 

[SOPOOR]

Seems gift cards can no longer be used to Pay ATO at Australia Post, nor can they be used to pay anything else. In the past they were accepted as a method of payment.

Heres a screen shot of some correspondence received today.

View attachment 100858

Does this include only1 gift visa cards?

 

[burmans]

Does this include only1 gift visa cards?

Don't these look like a Visa card rather than an EFTPOS card?