ATO (tax office) payments by credit card

[cove]

Qudos is now a mutual bank so I guess that means they are reviewed by APRA. When I applied they were a credit union.

 

[Eggsbenedict]

Why are credit unions such a pain!

Honestly I have never seen anything like it and I have or have had cc's with pretty much every bank in Australia. I just refinanced 4 houses for just over a couple of Million and didn't need anywhere near this much supporting documents. Compare this to AMEX LOL! They just throw credit cards around.

 

[Mattyana2003]

Honestly I have never seen anything like it and I have or have had cc's with pretty much every bank in Australia. I just refinanced 4 houses for just over a couple of Million and didn't need anywhere near this much supporting documents. Compare this to AMEX LOL! They just throw credit cards around.

I've had similar hassle this week, sounds like everyone in the office is 12 years old! I even sent them the kitchen sink but still no luck as yet. Also not sure how this card will go with ATO, sounds like they will enter every transaction manually into a ledger book with a quill on parchment!

 

[alexy23]

Any verdict on the best card for ATO payments? We should keep a summary somewhere for the current offers/promos for ATO point earners.

I can confirm that the Westpac Black T&C's contain:
- 1.5 Altitude Points for each $1.00 paid to the ATO usingyour Altitude Black American Express Card.

This would cost 1.45%, thus each point costing ~1.9c per point (1.5:1 ratio). The 1.45% is tax deductible as a business expense, however I'm not sure how this works on a personal card, regardless this works out to around 1.3c per point after tax (not a bad earning) - see calculations in post below.

The Black T&C's however contain:

You are not entitled to points (and we may correct your pointsrecord by deleting points invalidly awarded) if:
a transaction relates to the conduct of a business, thecard is used to make purchases that are business-related(including any expenditure of a personal business nature)or the card is used to purchase goods or services that arenot used wholly or predominantly for personal, domesticor household purposes

I'd say it'd be a hard fetch for Westpac to know a business expense - but you never know. If it was me I'd split it up into smaller payments over a few days to stay under their algorithms. I'm sure they know $60k in tax is unlikely. But $6-12k is quite possible

Assumptions: tax rate is company tax paid at (30%).

 

[boffman]

hmmm.... Dunno about those sums.
We're more concerned with miles than altitude points. I work it out as follows:
Fee 1.45%
Airline miles per $ - 0.75
Pre tax cost 0.0145 / 0.75 = 0.0193 per airline mile
After tax cost (assuming money spent on fee would have been taken as wages at highest tax bracket) 0.0193 * 0.6 = $0.0116

(you updated your post whilst I was writing this reply - your post now makes more sense!)

 

[alexy23]

Maybe the simplest way is to look at it in a case example.

$15000 tax = 22500 westpac points = 11,250 VA/QF (

$217.5 surcharge (30% company tax offset = $65.25) net charge after tax deduction = $152.25

Thus 11,250 points for $152.25 = $0.013 per point

(you updated your post whilst I was writing this reply - your post now makes more sense!)

updated now

 

[Danger UXB]

Maybe the simplest way is to look at it in a case example.

$15000 tax = 22500 westpac points = 11,250 VA/QF (

$217.5 surcharge (30% company tax offset = $65.25) net charge after tax deduction = $152.25

Thus 11,250 points for $152.25 = $0.013 per point



updated now

expensive points!!

 

[alexy23]

expensive points!!

For domestic flights yeah, don't see any other option really. Would even be good to buy tickets without the peak/holiday price increases etc.

 

[cove]

We decided to have a break from paying the ATO so our business partners are getting the points and miles. They all have Westpac Platinum Kris Flyer cards so they should get 1.25 Kris miles for 1.45%. This cost may be tax deductible.
The only problem that any of us have experienced is the 3 plus 1 year expiry of miles when using Kris miles. There is an extender that is costly and of course you could transfer the miles to Velocity for domestic flights (you lose a third and their international is hard to secure on points).

 

[alexy23]

That's a pretty sweet deal - hold on to that card!

Qudos is another option but I wonder how long that lasts with the new RBA changes. Plus I don't really use QF. I guess I could always swap VA/QF with a friend.

 

[cove]

Bankwest Platinum still works but at a detuned 0.5 points per dollar to QF so you are getting a QF point for 0.84 cents less any potential tax deduction. This is the pathway to their World card that runs 0.66 points per dollar to QF. The biggest problems for the Platinum card is the 200,000 Annual points cap and the modest starting credit limit they offer.
0.84 cents is great if you use those points to go coast to coast in business class as that gets you better than 5 cents a point in redemptions on Qantas.

 

[mbeder]

Anyone used the Jetstar Mastercard recently? Is it still paying 1:1? (Apologies if this is mentioned in an earlier post)

That's a pretty sweet deal - hold on to that card!

Qudos is another option but I wonder how long that lasts with the new RBA changes. Plus I don't really use QF. I guess I could always swap VA/QF with a friend.

 

[Scr77]

Anyone used the Jetstar Mastercard recently? Is it still paying 1:1? (Apologies if this is mentioned in an earlier post)

It was working when I last used it 2 months ago. I stopped because I reached the 100k pa points cap. I haven't had notification of any change.

 

[Eggsbenedict]

So I will be unable to report on the Austbank card. I was declined after a backround check that would do ASIO credit. As I have a large amount of Investment properties and keep a few CC accounts open as well as a lot of business lending going on I normally "shave" a few items off when going though Liabilities this is because my taxable income on paper does not support and most lenders can't get their heads around Family Trusts and Corporate Beneficiaries. Anyway this has never once been an issue before. Well Austbank found out about every single loan/credit card/company equipment finance/company overdraft... EVERYTHING I don't know if this is part of the new credit reporting or if they actually called every company that had done an inquiry on my Veda file.

 

[cove]

Interesting Eggsb we have a bit of a complicated structure of trusts and companies too and we don't take a salary out of our operating business. We go to zero balance on all the credit cards so it might appear that we could owe a million or two on credit cards but not really. I think I will try for a Bankwest World card for myself even though it has been tuned down to 0.66 points per dollar to QF.

 

[Scr77]

So I will be unable to report on the Austbank card. I was declined after a backround check that would do ASIO credit. As I have a large amount of Investment properties and keep a few CC accounts open as well as a lot of business lending going on I normally "shave" a few items off when going though Liabilities this is because my taxable income on paper does not support and most lenders can't get their heads around Family Trusts and Corporate Beneficiaries. Anyway this has never once been an issue before. Well Austbank found out about every single loan/credit card/company equipment finance/company overdraft... EVERYTHING I don't know if this is part of the new credit reporting or if they actually called every company that had done an inquiry on my Veda file.

Commiserations. Thanks for putting in the effort. It can be very frustrating to have to explain every detail to still be knocked back. I have difficulties with Citibank applications as they want treat investment properties as businesses and want notice of assessments.

 

[grounded]

@eggsbenedict Thanks for giving it a go for the team. I've got similar financial structures (multiple Directorships, multiple CCs, FT with Corp Trustees - no business loans though) but have recently been approved by both ANZ and Amex for top shelf cards without any follow-up, so it sounds like this is a case of small bank syndrome....

 

[cove]

Citibank has worked really well for us on everything other than ATO. I don't use our Australian Prestige cards for foreign payments.

 

[Eggsbenedict]

@eggsbenedict Thanks for giving it a go for the team. I've got similar financial structures (multiple Directorships, multiple CCs, FT with Corp Trustees - no business loans though) but have recently been approved by both ANZ and Amex for top shelf cards without any follow-up, so it sounds like this is a case of small bank syndrome....

Yep ANZ, AMEX and NAB approved without follow up or documents. St George needed something can't quite remember what, Citi Bank wanted financials they did not understand the structure at all but I had given them limited liabilities so they still approved the card just based on personal taxable.

 

[get me outta here]

cove, good luck with the BWW card app. Last I heard, BW charge a $220 pa fee when you ask for it before being 'invited'. Try to get an invitation if you can, but they may interpret that as a request anyway.

Interesting Eggsb we have a bit of a complicated structure of trusts and companies too and we don't take a salary out of our operating business. We go to zero balance on all the credit cards so it might appear that we could owe a million or two on credit cards but not really. I think I will try for a Bankwest World card for myself even though it has been tuned down to 0.66 points per dollar to QF.